word power

JK Rowling delivers graduate commencement address at Harvard.

I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

Interesting speech, i like the following points:

(On failure) You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.

(On imagination) One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

In my year Sunscreen was a popular song, (appropriatley subtitled class of '99) which all sounds a bit sentimental now but guess there is still a lot of truth in those words. Words like these:

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idel Tuesday.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Reminds me of a really good last summer in Newcastle. Feeling of being on the cusp of a wave, very energised and excited by the next footfall in life. Sad to be saying goodbye to a way of living that would never repeated, to bid farewell to friends one would see all too randomly. Suddenly realising we were adults. More accountable, more vulnerable and yet also more independent and more intelligent. I miss Rothbury Terrace, I miss the time available to think about things. Don't miss the car crash in the kitchen though.

It will be ten years since those heady times this time next year. So much has changed, so little is different.