Sometimes I feel the need to curl up in J.K. Rowling’s writing like a security blanket. Harry Potter is obviously my favourite book series, even though I promised not to read it for five years after the movies were over I still broke that promise to myself and snuck them in a few times when I was stuck in a book rut and needed to break out.
I grew up with them and learned how to be a kind and clever person. So it only seems natural that in a transitional phase of my life, where I don’t know where I’m going, what I’m doing, who I want to remain, what I want to do with my life, and generally growing up from my 20s into my 30s, that I need her.
And this time she was making a very valid point:
Failure is good.
Failure IS an option.
Failure helps you learn more than success sometimes. And it’s not shameful or something you need to guilt yourself over.
This was a speech she had written for graduates at Harvard, and while it’s short, she makes you feel better if all you’ve ever felt you’ve done is fail. Or at least have a day where you feel like that’s all you’ve done and you are trapped in your own cry factory and BooHoo Festival.
Everyone needs to read this when they are feel stuck or like a failure or like their lives aren’t going anywhere.
She always puts things in perspective in a smart and articulate way that speaks to real people.
Curl up in her words, it’ll make you feel better, I promise.
Jo always has my back.
The Deranged Librarian 