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Harvard Commencement Speech, 2008

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates. Voice Reading
The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Voice Reading
Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. Voice Reading
A win-win situation! Voice Reading
Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world's largest Gryffindor reunion. Voice Reading
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. Voice Reading
The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Voice Reading
Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. Voice Reading
This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard. Voice Reading
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Voice Reading
Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement. Voice Reading
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. Voice Reading
I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this. Voice Reading
I have come up with two answers. Voice Reading
On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. Voice Reading
And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination. Voice Reading
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me. Voice Reading
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. Voice Reading
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. Voice Reading
However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. Voice Reading
I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now. Voice Reading
So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. Voice Reading
A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Voice Reading
Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor. Voice Reading

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