Original artwork, not a still
You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
— 2008 Harvard University Commencement Address
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Adversity is described as revealing strengths and relationships that ordinary circumstances may leave untested. The knowledge is valuable precisely because it has been difficult to gain. Comparing it with qualifications shifts attention from formal achievement to the understanding earned by having to endure something demanding.
Context reviewed
