God forbid, I write a post that's not about me. (mostly)
This is about everyone that's helped me get me to the point where I am now (and in a good way).
It's hard to remember on a consistent basis that I would not be in the position I am now without the countless support and selflessness of the people within my family, or my friends.
I also cannot say that I would be where I am now without my parent's wealth or insistence that I be above my peers in academic excellence.
Think about it. Parents pay for our education and screw ups, raise us as helpless infants, tolerate our annoying cries in the middle of the night and selfish whinings as tweens and teenagers.
Parents are the reason we're alive and successful the way we are, the reason we're ambitious and look ahead instead of around us.
Granted, our parents didn't make us become these things. We could have chosen not to be. But they made being these good things an appealing and available option. Money can't do everything for you, but it can open doors you didn't know could be opened.
With the wrong set of parents or friends, we could see education or selflessness or intellectualism as something beneath our attention, and end up focusing on things that aren't worth anyone's time.
Our parents and schools opened doors for us that we didn't even realize needed to be opened until it was too late. Thankfully, they were there for us to notice when we didn't or couldn't. The same can't be said for everyone.
The things most of us have done are mostly reactionary, or so I fear. We don't make our own opportunities, but check out the ones in front of us. I think of school clubs and organizations and programs when I say this, and I fear that the only reason we have access to these things is because of our privilege than whether we actually deserve them.
I'm just worried that one day the opportunities to do what we want with our lives won't be in front of us, and in the face of that limitless emptiness, we won't do anything at all without it being handed to us or taught to do it. I fear that without English classes we wouldn't write essays in our spare time, or read about History or brush up on Foreign Language. I fear that our education is seen as something as the basis for the rest of our life instead of just the beginning of a long-life accumulation of knowledge. I don't want to stop learning and doing things, but I don't want to be helpless without a structure to do those things.
Does any of this make sense? Probably not
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