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.

Twi-rap.

I'm sure he's going to kill me for this or something damn near close, but I had to post this. Ben wrote a silly Twilight themed rap and it cracks me up!

I ain't got no chain on mah neck
Ed's ICE COLD
I'm made of diamonds bitch
TRUTH BE TOLD

Cuz I'm a Vampire bitch
V to the Ampire
And Forks be
My mutha-fuckin EMPIRE

Bella be trippin'
in her broke ass truck
Get yo ass in the Guardian, bitch
What the FUCK!?

I do the Harlem Shake
and make mountains crumble
then I b-boy that shit
and make Atlas FUMBLE

The Untitled Facebook Project = A+

I received my 3rd paper back today in my creative writing class and to my astonishment, I earned an A+.

I wasn't sure what kind of grade I would earn on because I didn't feel nearly as passionate about it as I had with my previous paper (which earned an A). I felt like there was no possible way that I was going to top the work of my lyric essay. After all, the paper was framed around drugs, alcohol, and addiction.

What I ended up writing was an essay about writing an essay, which according to the teacher is very hard to do. Included were personal photography and screen shots of a Facebook status that I had posted asking for suggestions on the topic at hand. I wrote it like I was sitting there considering the idea of writing about the one and only really good story I had to tell, a personal experience of my own.

How I posted the Facebook status and with each response and the accompany screen of the response, I replied in depth to each person in which ever way seemed fit. There was so much content than just the responses, but you get the gist. In the end, it was a 13 page paper and it earned me an A+.

Should I be complaining? Absolutely not.

I've been looking back on old journal entries between here and my blogger, laughing about how foolish I once was (and still am for that matter) and how I used to hate the fact that I couldn't write a paper to save my life. Now I yearn to write. I get so much pleasure out of writing that it's almost surreal to know that just a few short years ago I was once hiding behind my own fear of ability, blinded by the constant bad grades and internal feelings of stupidity.

Comparing myself to the next person, who could write a decent paper with trouble, was probably the dumbest thing I'd ever done. It didn't solve anything. It didn't improve my writing skills. It only weighed me down to an unspeakable level of humiliation.

Out of fairness and complete truth, I contribute a lot of my writing ability to blogging. It helped me develop and organize my thoughts, thats for sure. But I also attribute my ability to the old fashion practice makes perfect mantra.

What really meant the most was the teacher's comment, which said:

"You've written an essay about writing an essay (meta discourse). That's really hard to do. Excellent job, Lauren. I was riveted throughout. You truly do have a very creative mind and you are a superb writer."

If anyone wants to read the essay, let me know and I'll email you a copy.

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.

5 Facts About The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Fact #1: It's Darker

The brand new poster for Eclipse (above) hints at a darker tone with its brooding storm clouds. With 30 Days of Night director David Slade at the helm, it's unsurprising. "Every movie is different because we work with a different director on each one, which I love," Taylor Lautner tells RT. "David Slade is perfect for the third film because it's darker. Eclipse was my favourite book."
 

Ashley Greene, who plays vampire Alice, tells RT that Slade isn't just a prince of darkness. "David is actually hysterical," she laughs, "He has such a dry sense of humour that sometimes you don't know if he's kidding or not. Eclipse will be amazing because he has made it far edgier and more dramatic. It's going to look very cool."