How awesome is J.K. Rowling??

I don't know if any of y'all have listened to the commencement speech JKR gave at Harvard yesterday. (You can read the transcript right here). That woman is simply amazing. Whether or not you like her books, it's evident to me, just by this speech alone, that she is a wonderful human being.

Maybe it's because I haven't had the opportunity to listen to a college commencement speech of my own (yet! hope springs eternal :P), but JKR's words are really resonating with me.

Here are just a few snippets that you might one day see over in a sidebar.

"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. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, 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..."

"Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes."

"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

In addition to all this, she also made jokes about gay wizards and valuable photographic evidence should any of her university friends decide to run for Prime Minister. Hee!

But seriously, God bless her for speaking about the benefits of failure! Ten years ago, I couldn't even begin to imagine the failure I was going to be facing. (Thank God I didn't know!) I have been at that rock bottom place. But like JKR, I realized I had a solid foundation, and I built my life back from there, and to be perfectly honest, I'm still building.

My biggest regret is that I have let fear control my life. JKR is such a great example of not giving fear that power. Excuse my if I sound too fangirl-y, but JKR is one of my modern day heroes, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Especially after a speech like the one she gave at Harvard yesterday.