The Eminence of J.K. Rowling

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

Photo Link

J.K. Rowling, real name Joanne Rowling. If you’re wondering what the K stands for, it’s not her middle name, she doesn’t have a middle name. So in honour of her late grandmother, Kathleen, she made her pen name J.K. Rowling. As a kid she was actually called Jo, now she’s not a little kid anymore as she’s 54 years old. Now you may know this woman as the author and creator of the world-wide sensation known as Harry Potter.

The story of J.K. Rowling is that she started off poor and struggling but now she’s a globally known author with a legendary book series. Her rags to riches story can inspire others and she’s used her fame and fortune to make a difference in the world.

What draws me to choosing J.K. Rowling is that she is a very famous writer and very successful from her career. Not only that but she also is a humanitarian that donates lots to charities and will also be receiving the 2019 Robert F Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award this december.

I feel that J.K Rowling and I have a few things in common. We both enjoy creative writing, specifically fantasy writing. We have similar hobbies too, as a kid she liked to paint, sculpt, and draw like I enjoy doing now. She was also a very avid reader like I am. She inherited that trait from her mother whereas I inherited the trait from my father. Both our parents taught us to love reading books. We also both like to bake and cook and do fun things as a family. Plus we have the same favourite food, sushi. Other qualities I share with J.K. Rowling is that we are both creative and passionate people especially when it comes to reading and writing. We’re also both very determined people. She’s also very patient but I feel I need to improve more on that skill.

To an extent J.K. Rowling exemplifies my goals for TALONS because she was always a very gifted writer in school and I want to become a better writer to help with my creative writing in my own time and to help with my writing skills in my TALONS classes.

Barriers I might have with J.K. Rowling is that she lives in the UK and I live in Canada, she’s in the upper class and I’m in the middle class, she’s a practising christian and I’m agnostic. But the things is these aren’t really barriers because of a few reasons. About her living in the UK and me living in Canada, it isn’t that much of a barrier because Canada generally have very positive encounters with the UK, and we both have the same sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II. Our different classes wouldn’t be a barrier because she wasn’t always in the upper class, she started in the lower class. So she didn’t always have the same luxuries as she does now, in fact I had more luxuries than she did at my age. Finally, regarding religious faith it doesn’t really pose as a barrier because she’s christian meaning she believes in god. Whereas agnosticism just means I don’t know, so I don’t believe god exists and I don’t believe god doesn’t, I believe we can’t really prove it. So those two don’t really clash because agnostic people doesn’t say god doesn’t exist, they just don’t really believe either way.

Photo Link

J.K Rowling has contributed to her field in a positive way by providing readers with an incredible book series that almost everyone has heard of. Not only that, she’s also provided so much money to charities and that’s really made a difference. She’s even founded her own charity, Lumos, along with funding 13 other charities. Plus I believe J.K. Rowling will be remembered in at least 50 years because of how popular her book series, Harry Potter was. Aside from her book series she will also be remembered by her achievements like receiving awards for humanitarianism and charity work. And the fact that she founded her own charity. Not only that but as of 2012 she was no longer a billionaire because she donated 16% of her total net worth to charity. This is why I think she will be remembered for 50 years and not just simply 10 or 20.

 J.K. Rowling has had to go through quite a bit to get to the place she’s at now. Before the Harry Potter series was a huge success she had it rough. She was diagnosed with depression after her mother died, was unemployed, was divorced after she was beaten by her husband, then had to raise her daughter alone after he left, and all the while was living on state benefits. She didn’t even expect the Harry Potter series to take off the way it did, in fact it was rejected by 12 publishers before the 13th agreed to publish it, Bloomsbury. It was never easy for her.  She has quite a few fears, she is afraid of more minor things like spiders, public speaking, and forgetting details when she’s writing. But she also has more intense fears  like having a family member die and being buried alive. She has a few wants but they’ve mostly come true. She wanted a good life for her daughter so as soon as the book series took off she took the time to finally pamper her daughter, she got things they couldn’t before like pets and moved to a new place. She got remarried and her then she spent her time doing humanitarian work and writing the rest of the books in the series.

A goal I have for the next step in my research is to read more into J.K. Rowling’s biography and find out more about her childhood and into the time when she first started writing the book series. I’m going to also start doing some work for making my presentation on her.

 I’ve found out so much about J.K Rowling and what a positive role model she is and I can’t forget to mention what a huge fan of hers I am, having read the harry potter books and seen the movies. Hope you enjoyed reading and peace out muggles!