Numerous graduation ceremonies take place yearly in high schools, colleges, and
universities. These ceremonies can be moments of reflection on years of
education and achievement.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling gave this year’s Harvard graduating class words
on “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”.
Rowling revealed to the graduating class that at their age, her deepest fear was
failure and “a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic
scale.”
“I had no idea how far the tunnel (of failure) extended,” says Rowling, “and for
a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a
stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was
anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing
the only work that mattered to me. …I was set free, because my greatest fear had
already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I
adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became
the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life…”
Failure, pain, suffering – things most of us fear at some level. And all fears,
however deeply held, have the potential to hinder us, to hold us back from
accomplishment. We can be held in paralysis by fear, approach our duties
half-heartedly because of it or unable to conquer it, nevertheless take steps on
our path, towing our fear alongside.
Fear can be a killer. But approached correctly, it can also be a liberator,
unlocking doors which previously appeared as stone walls. For our fear
actualized will force us to lay down or fight. And a fear fought can be
transformed into a source of growth and become a building block of a life well
lived.
Ms. Rowling ended her speech with words of Roman philosopher Seneca: “As is a
tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
