Elite Disillusionment
I didn&#x27;t do University until late 20s. And it was a C level state school. But darn it, it was the best 3.5 years of the best bang for buck dollars spent. My major was pure math. I loved it. No boss. No office BS. Just me and my homework. I came to love English the subject I sucked at throughout K-12. I&#x27;m forever grateful to Judy Newland (if memory serves that&#x27;s her name) for holding the line on writing. She told me my semester English paper was a total F. Thank god by my 20s I&#x27;d matured enough to stop making excuses. For the first time I took the criticism and asked how can I fix it? Five drafts later I got a C and improved from there in time and more classes. I aced literature classes. I still remember laughing out loud during an Enlightenment Lit final about a quote from Voltaire (satire, &quot;Candide&quot;). Folks, second chances are great. I needed it. And when you&#x27;re ready to grow Harvard may be great but so are many state Universities too. That&#x27;s why I tell my older son who&#x27;s in university now that it&#x27;s more like a mirror. If you&#x27;re on fire it&#x27;ll reflect that back to you. And if you&#x27;re just passing through uni will be a ok Las Vegas weekend at best: in-out-done as there was no long term vision anyway. I&#x27;m less and less convinced that human organizations can light kids up. We gotta come lit up and some hard knocks often helps get that fire started.