Commencement: a Rebirth

In honour of all my friends and other graduates celebrating the end of an era around the world, I share with you the commencement address from one of the most influential people of the world. I hope her thought-proving words will inspire you to believe that extreme difficulties can be overcome and the extraordinary accomplishments we can achieve.

Before Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling was divorced, jobless, a single-parent and one unpaid month of rent from becoming homeless. But then, like magic, she had an idea and her life changed forever. Although I haven’t written a book, much less seven, or become a billionaire (except on Neopets), the life she experienced parallels my own in so many ways.

“Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.”

Two years ago, I sat in an uncomfortable plastic chair in an ice-rink-turned-auditorium with my fellow 2009 Burnaby Mountain Secondary graduates. Wearing my black gown and cap with the tassel placed on the right, I heard family and friends politely clap for people they had no concern for and cheer wildly for people they paid to sit like sardines for. I watched classmates go upstage to receive their scholarships and I walked on the same stage to receive my University of Toronto Book Award: a 400-page encyclopaedia. I took a picture with my fake diploma, because none of us had technically graduated, and wondered what I would be eating afterwards: sushi or Chinese food. Just some of the difficult decisions I was concerned about.

Like J.K., looking back at the 17-year-old that I was at graduation is also an uncomfortable experience.