So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree I wanted to study English Literature. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now. 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. I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. 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. 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. These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

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. 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.

Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.Īctually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. 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. 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. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation.

I die every day when im away fromyou