MY INSPIRATION
One of the women who inspired me the most is “J.K.Rowling”, the author of the super successful fantasy series, the Harry Potter. It’s said that real success comes after a string of failures. That’s exactly what happened with Rowling. Her personal life was in upheaval making every day troublesome for her. The thought which changed her life was the idea of writing about a young boy attending a wizardry school. So,she began writing on it and after her mother’s death later that year she channelized all her energy towards her writing. She soon moved to Porto, Portugal where she began working as a teacher. She taught at night and wrote during the day time. She married a Portuguese journalist and gave birth to a girl child. The birth of their child was followed by their separation. Things were tough for Rowlings during her marriage as well as after divorce. Shewas now divorced, jobless and mother of a dependent child. She was emotionally drained and saw herself as a failure in life. She was diagnosed with clinicaldepression during this time and wanted to commit suicide as she saw no hope.
Eventually, she signed for Government-assisted welfare, describing her economic status as poor. It was a challenging time in her life, but she kept going on and put all her energy into completing her novel. In 1995 Rowling completed her manuscript for Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone on an old manual typewriter. She was so poor that she could not afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the novel, so she manually typed each copy and submitted it to twelve publishing houses in London. The manuscript was rejected almost dozens of times until she was finally given a chance with a £1,500 advance by a small London publisher, Bloomsbury, after its
CEO’s little 8-year-old daughter fell in love with it after reading the first chapter of the book. It was the turning point of her life, after that she never looked back. She has received numerous awards for her work that has been appreciated all over the world. The Harry Potter series, that brought her to the limelight, created history by becoming the best-selling book series worldwide. So immense was the popularity of these books that these were soon incorporated into films. Rowling kept going despite facing failure at several stages of her life and eventually climbed the ladder to success. The biggest lesson I learned from J.K Rowling is to keep trying, believing, and acting on your dream.
P.Veda Satya Sri – Class 8B,
Vishnu School,
Bhimavaram