Benefits of Failure and Importance of Imagination

J. K. Rowling gave the commencement speech at Harvard University's 2008 graduation ceremony.


J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

In her speech, she discussed the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination. I thought that it might be inspiring to some, so please feel free to watch the video and/or just read the transcript of her speech. But let's be serious, the British accent is much more pleasant!

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion.

My 'Twilight' Experience.

I came across a brilliant 3 part article on The Washington Post's website about literary women, their love for the Twilight saga, and their complete and utter lack of shame for falling so hard for a silly tween love story.

Finding the initial piece led to another article about the healing powers of Twilight and it put me at ease, or at even more ease I should say.

When I first heard of this whole Twilight thing, it was during the holiday season last year and I was working a crappy mall job to pass time between semesters. People would come into the story raving about the movie, wearing the t-shirts and hoodies, and promising me how great it was. Initially I was very much against this whole vampire business, having had no interest in them prior, and swore up and down, to Jupiter and back that I would never Benedict Arnold my love and devotion to Harry Potter.

Then came the nonstop advertisements on OnDemand during the early spring time of this year. I kept ignoring them and praying they would stop showing me this stupid crap.

When a sudden and unexpected dry spell hit me, having no more new or old movies to watch, I caved in and decided to let myself find out just exactly what all the craze was about. So I picked up a copy of the movie and within 20 minutes, I was completely hooked. It was like I had been injected by an unwanted course of emotions and it wasn't going to stop.

South Mountain Summit.

"All I can hear is the murmur of cars down below" Ben said, as we sat in my car at the summit of South Mountain this chilly November evening.

The view from the top of the mountain is certainly something to see, particularly Dobbins Lookout. I've only been up there a handful of times, but each time some sort of philosophical spark seems to ignite my thoughts.

A flood of speculation nearly swallowed up my mind as the two of us sat there, beneath the stars, looking outward to the north and east. Being up there always reminds of just how small I am in comparison to the world and how lucky I am to be apart of something so grand; so beautiful.

Watching an entire city functioning right before your eyes is so bizarre in a way. I couldn't help but pay attention to I-10 & AZ-60, wondering where all of those people were going. Were they driving home to their families, running errands, rushing to a night class, or simply out for a Monday evening drive? Thousands of lights could be seen all around the valley, sparkling like an on ocean of glitter.