Bestselling author Jodi Picoult discussed the importance of being challenged during a Class Day speech Monday
PRINCETON - When Jodi Picoult was an undergraduate student at Princeton University, her professor told her that a short story she'd written was no good.
"So I edited it and I edited it," Picoult said, grinning over a sea of graduating Princeton University seniors. "And then I sold it to 17 Magazine."
Now-bestselling author Picoult, who addressed the graduating 2016 seniors during Class Day Monday, used the story to open up a speech about the benefits of being challenged.
Picoult discussed how the moment was one of many in which she learned to rise up to difficult tasks.
What if that professor had loved her work? Would she have tried to make it better? Would she even be a best selling author now, she asked out loud.
Picoult said that throughout her time at Princeton, she continued to learn how to face challenges - eventually becoming what she called an, "accidental activist."
It was a lesson she imparted on the group of seniors Monday - with a topical focus.
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She reminded students that meeting challenges extends beyond their own aspirations; it includes being challenged on social justice issues.
Picoult related her speech - and her experiences as a woman at the predominantly male university in the 1980's - to the recent protests on Princeton's campus led by the Black Justice League (BJL).
During the protests in November, the student-run BJL demanded university officials make the campus more accessible to students of color - and they faced backlash for it from some of their peers.
Picoult addressed that backlash Monday, saying that student protesters were told to "stop whining," and that others had said the protests made them uncomfortable.
"Comments like that come from the gatekeepers who have always had a voice," Picoult said.
"Comfort is not an inalienable right," she added, to cheers from students.
She implored students to allow themselves to be challenged - not just on their work, but on their core values, ideas and what makes them "comfortable."
"Don't let anyone convince you that just because something always has been done a certain way, that means it's right," she finished.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.