J.K. Rowling: Too Common for Harvard?
I dropped off N at soccer camp, then made my way to the office this morning, QuikTrip coffee beside me, NPR on the radio. I had a good 20 minutes of windshield time and I was going to enjoy it.
Then I hear some snippets of Harvard graduates talking about J.K. Rowling making the commencent speech. Some liked it. Some did not. The ones who did not like it rubbed me the wrong way.
I get it. I was 21 or 22 years old, once. I thought I knew everything. I thought the world as mine and it would be handed to me. That I deserved it. That I was entitled to it. After all, I graduated from college. Not just any college, but a good college. An engineering college. So, you know, everyone should acknowledge what an amazing feat that is and cover my path with roses.
So to hear that J.K. Rowling, a self-made woman, a writer of children's novels - and, yes, I do not find them particularly well-written, myself, but you know what? The woman and her stories have made children want to read again. She has kept their imaginations alive for years.
She is not Bill Gates. She is not Kofi Annan. But she was a single mother who had a good story and parlayed that story into major success. Is that not an amazing story?
I think it was one student in particular who made my neck hairs tingle. It was his use of the word entitled. That as Harvard graduates, they were entitled to have someone better.
Maybe my nice little engineering college was better, after all. I shudder to think of the attitude I would have had if I had attended such an esteemed university.
Then I hear some snippets of Harvard graduates talking about J.K. Rowling making the commencent speech. Some liked it. Some did not. The ones who did not like it rubbed me the wrong way.
I get it. I was 21 or 22 years old, once. I thought I knew everything. I thought the world as mine and it would be handed to me. That I deserved it. That I was entitled to it. After all, I graduated from college. Not just any college, but a good college. An engineering college. So, you know, everyone should acknowledge what an amazing feat that is and cover my path with roses.
So to hear that J.K. Rowling, a self-made woman, a writer of children's novels - and, yes, I do not find them particularly well-written, myself, but you know what? The woman and her stories have made children want to read again. She has kept their imaginations alive for years.
She is not Bill Gates. She is not Kofi Annan. But she was a single mother who had a good story and parlayed that story into major success. Is that not an amazing story?
I think it was one student in particular who made my neck hairs tingle. It was his use of the word entitled. That as Harvard graduates, they were entitled to have someone better.
Maybe my nice little engineering college was better, after all. I shudder to think of the attitude I would have had if I had attended such an esteemed university.
Labels: children
5 Comments:
I am sure some of the "entitled" feel that all the success is reserved for them. They don't want to hear that someone with none of the entitlements became a star and houshehold name. Really, how many of them will achieve the same?
They hired this kid right out of uni. as a communications assistant in our office. And the sense of entitlement astounds me. It floors me. It's amazing really.
What happened to a little humility you know?
Oh. Say what you will, she wrote a brilliant story that kids (and many adults love) -- not sure how involved with marketing she is. But damn, she made Harry Potter a household name.
I'm sure when they're as successful as she is and achieve worldwide fame with their ideas and deliverances they'll justify their comments. However, one gets the feeling it might just not happen! Also, I think the comments were tinged with just a teensy bit of jealousy and feelings of inadequacy.
I heard that same comment during my morning drive to work in Tulsa and went bat-shit, too. I hate to sound like a geezer (I'm only 45!), but today's generation has absolutely no sense that reward and privilege must be earned. Give me an older worker any day.
Mayberry Magpie
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