Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.  JK Rowling

I discovered Harry Potter in college after book 3’s release. I confessed to a friend that I was spending every moment I could reading Harry Potter, and he accused me of being a potter-head. He said, “you’re doing potter when you should be doing your homework.”

I pre-ordered from book 5 on and read my copy while 3 other family members were snuggled up reading theirs, because we couldn’t possibly buy only one copy and wait for our turn to read. I remember when book 6 was released, reading it in line at the grocery store and noticing other shoppers doing the same. This is a picture of me at platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross station in London last year.

We got to the station at 10:00 pm on our way back to my friend’s house who lives an hour train ride outside of London. She said that if you visit this spot during the day, your can pay for props like scarves and Harry Potter glasses and such, and wait in a line and pay to take a picture. We didn’t have to wait, or pay, but we didn’t have props either. You can see the doors in the picture for a shop next to the platform that sells everything Harry Potter.

I love Harry Potter because Rowling got kids reading who weren’t typically readers, but I also love her personal story. Poor thing got thrust into the public eye, and you can literally see her squinting in the spotlight. She didn’t like being a public figure, and never seemed to give a good interview, until her interview with Oprah .

JK Rowling gives her Harvard commencement speech on the benefits of failure. She had hit rock bottom in her life. She was a college graduate living on welfare and raising her baby alone. But she says, “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began directing all my energy into finishing the work that really mattered to me. Had I succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I felt I truly belong. I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive.”  

She says, “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all. In which case you’ve failed by default.” 

I think she was telling us to live boldly. Try to take our failures and build something great from them. Don’t let them defeat us.

There are many gifts, and to everyone is given a gift…to some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.   – Mormon Scripture

People fall on a personality spectrum. For example, some people are super type A and are always moving, and motivated to get things done. The other side of that coin is people who are super chill, and happy with the way things are. My sister lives 900 miles away so we only see each other on visits. I love this girl, but she moves at a different pace than I do. When I visit her, I adapt to her pace. We wander through grocery stores looking at the back of labels, discussing options and what products we like best. The girl is late to everything. I am the opposite. My life is pretty much a whirl of constant motion. She and I have talked about our goals before. She said that she has set a personal goal to take action when she sees something that needs to be done, instead of asking someone else to do it (her husband or kids). I laughed and told her that I had almost the opposite goal, I had set a personal goal to let other people do things I ask them to instead of doing it myself 10 seconds after I ask them to do it (my husband and kids). But there are things we have the opportunity to learn from each other. I can learn to relax a little, and she could learn to pick up the pace. Or we can just try to be the best versions of ourselves we can and offer our gifts to the world as they stand. We’re are all in this together, and it’s by design that we bring lots of different strengths to the table.