Amy, that was a great essay. Loved the truth you stated.."In short I came into college with a naive, American Dreamish type of ideaology that talent plus hard work and perserverance was the recipe to get ahead....What a fool I was......It was about who you knew and how you signalled that you were a part of that club... "
It kinda encapsulates what is true for all of life....NOT ust college.......who you know...how you get ahead by knowing the right people and acting the "right" way..
A hard truth which took me years to accept......and I come from that privileged class.
I must say, I never could stand my peer group. Still can't.
i grew up in a typical majority middle class town... with some diversity and actually way back then (like i'm talkin bout the 50's !) , the people weren't that bad. I'm sure that most of the kids grew up to be stockbrokers or dentists or fairly decent positions somewhere. But the 60's were my teenage years, and rebellious times for a small group of us . I never did like being told what to do . Funny how some people just have that anti-authority gene added to the mix . Nothing that has happened in all those years has changed that.
I took the 10 year plan to finish college. I was off in the woods fighting fires, lighting fires, planting trees, cutting down trees, gold mining
By the time I came back to the city, I had two years of community college attending winter and spring. I worked at the Marriott hotel full time in the morning then went later that day to portland state. I missed all on campus drama.
My college degree came in handy.
Not sure I would of made it in your challenges.
Most likely would of picked a fight with one of the spoiled princess’s and out of that scene I’d go.
Thanks Amy for the inside view of attending an elite college, from a humble background.
Beautifully written, Amy, and it goes far beyond wordcraft. Honest self-examination and self-revelation without angry judgment and pretense speak to your good character. Kids with status-symbol horses may never learn that because they don’t attend the school of humbling hard knocks.
Some say good ol’ boys can be intellectuals, but privileged intellectuals will never be good ol’ boys. I suspect good ol’ boys came up with that, but to me, “good ol’” character is integrity and authenticity acquired through experience. Many who never stood on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder cannot imagine how silly, vain, and vapid their born-to-privilege "education" so often reveals itself to be. Their spiritual blindness is buried under materialism, and for that they are worthy of our pity.
Just in case the PC police drop by, let me be clear: good ol’ boys love and respect good ol’ gals. It’s mutual, and neither will stand for anything less.
Wonderful essay, I feel for you having to deal with the "horsey"set. Shame Thunder didn't clean her clock for her and shame on the instructors for allowing such poor sportsmanship.
I'm with you, Amy. I thought college and life in general was going to be all about merit -- what you knew and what you could bring to the table -- not WHO you knew. But my revelation was that it was a combination of both - and that is just human nature. That is why it is good to network. Get to know people worth knowing -- and to become someone worth knowing. For opportunities of any kind, given fairly equal merits, people will always go with someone who comes recommended by someone they know.
PS: That girl who punched her horse in the nose -- a big tell.
One observation, (great work thank you Amy) is that the more education and money people have, the fewer children, and I would suppose this trend is decades old. I grew up in a family of 4, but they were 10,11 and 13 years older than I was, so in some ways I grew up as an only child too. The baby. One thing I could not learn from being around my siblings was about things like punching each other, without a closer sibling to help one learn about the dangers of punching someone is that they will, at some point, punch you back. Thank God I had cousins, but life is harder for only children in the learning department. The foolishness of snout punching a horse is....unfathomable. All I can think of is the fact that it is being quite nice to let (hopefully not too heavy) you get on its back in the first place. Having taken one very painful horse trip into the Walllowa mountions of Oregon (my knee tendons dont usually have to bend THAT way) (intense pain does increase ones sensory experience though), being on my sweet horses back to carry me over very dangerous passes was not something I would endanger by giving the horse any reason to be angry with me. OMG. It could kill you in a second if pressed. What creatures they are!
Yes it was very stupid and dangerous of her for multiple reasons to punch her horse like that. Thoroughbreds are hot blooded and Thunder was very large at over 17 hands tall. The more she tried to control him the worse he got.
From my time prior riding horses in California and Mexico I took a special liking to hotblooded hard to control types, but I went about it the exact opposite way as she did, trying to bond and calm down and build trust and rapport. They are such majestic creatures but yes they can kill you.
PS: also it is true on demographics. Richer people have less children and coddle the ones they do have...well the ones they will acknowledge having, anyways. ;-)
Amy, that was a great essay. Loved the truth you stated.."In short I came into college with a naive, American Dreamish type of ideaology that talent plus hard work and perserverance was the recipe to get ahead....What a fool I was......It was about who you knew and how you signalled that you were a part of that club... "
It kinda encapsulates what is true for all of life....NOT ust college.......who you know...how you get ahead by knowing the right people and acting the "right" way..
A hard truth which took me years to accept......and I come from that privileged class.
I must say, I never could stand my peer group. Still can't.
i grew up in a typical majority middle class town... with some diversity and actually way back then (like i'm talkin bout the 50's !) , the people weren't that bad. I'm sure that most of the kids grew up to be stockbrokers or dentists or fairly decent positions somewhere. But the 60's were my teenage years, and rebellious times for a small group of us . I never did like being told what to do . Funny how some people just have that anti-authority gene added to the mix . Nothing that has happened in all those years has changed that.
I took the 10 year plan to finish college. I was off in the woods fighting fires, lighting fires, planting trees, cutting down trees, gold mining
By the time I came back to the city, I had two years of community college attending winter and spring. I worked at the Marriott hotel full time in the morning then went later that day to portland state. I missed all on campus drama.
My college degree came in handy.
Not sure I would of made it in your challenges.
Most likely would of picked a fight with one of the spoiled princess’s and out of that scene I’d go.
Thanks Amy for the inside view of attending an elite college, from a humble background.
Beautifully written, Amy, and it goes far beyond wordcraft. Honest self-examination and self-revelation without angry judgment and pretense speak to your good character. Kids with status-symbol horses may never learn that because they don’t attend the school of humbling hard knocks.
Some say good ol’ boys can be intellectuals, but privileged intellectuals will never be good ol’ boys. I suspect good ol’ boys came up with that, but to me, “good ol’” character is integrity and authenticity acquired through experience. Many who never stood on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder cannot imagine how silly, vain, and vapid their born-to-privilege "education" so often reveals itself to be. Their spiritual blindness is buried under materialism, and for that they are worthy of our pity.
Just in case the PC police drop by, let me be clear: good ol’ boys love and respect good ol’ gals. It’s mutual, and neither will stand for anything less.
Wonderful essay, I feel for you having to deal with the "horsey"set. Shame Thunder didn't clean her clock for her and shame on the instructors for allowing such poor sportsmanship.
I'm with you, Amy. I thought college and life in general was going to be all about merit -- what you knew and what you could bring to the table -- not WHO you knew. But my revelation was that it was a combination of both - and that is just human nature. That is why it is good to network. Get to know people worth knowing -- and to become someone worth knowing. For opportunities of any kind, given fairly equal merits, people will always go with someone who comes recommended by someone they know.
PS: That girl who punched her horse in the nose -- a big tell.
I like to think it is both. Somehow I've managed...
Raised similar to you , title 9 was very helpful ... grateful. Thanks Amy , . Enjoy your essays . !! Be safe always !
One observation, (great work thank you Amy) is that the more education and money people have, the fewer children, and I would suppose this trend is decades old. I grew up in a family of 4, but they were 10,11 and 13 years older than I was, so in some ways I grew up as an only child too. The baby. One thing I could not learn from being around my siblings was about things like punching each other, without a closer sibling to help one learn about the dangers of punching someone is that they will, at some point, punch you back. Thank God I had cousins, but life is harder for only children in the learning department. The foolishness of snout punching a horse is....unfathomable. All I can think of is the fact that it is being quite nice to let (hopefully not too heavy) you get on its back in the first place. Having taken one very painful horse trip into the Walllowa mountions of Oregon (my knee tendons dont usually have to bend THAT way) (intense pain does increase ones sensory experience though), being on my sweet horses back to carry me over very dangerous passes was not something I would endanger by giving the horse any reason to be angry with me. OMG. It could kill you in a second if pressed. What creatures they are!
Yes it was very stupid and dangerous of her for multiple reasons to punch her horse like that. Thoroughbreds are hot blooded and Thunder was very large at over 17 hands tall. The more she tried to control him the worse he got.
From my time prior riding horses in California and Mexico I took a special liking to hotblooded hard to control types, but I went about it the exact opposite way as she did, trying to bond and calm down and build trust and rapport. They are such majestic creatures but yes they can kill you.
PS: also it is true on demographics. Richer people have less children and coddle the ones they do have...well the ones they will acknowledge having, anyways. ;-)
I was going to say something mean about Ella Emhoff. Then I thought it was beneath me.