Mark said something good the other day that I’ve been thinking about a lot. He said “the hardest demands to live up to are the ones we put to ourselves”.
What he meant by that is that we demand such perfection from ourselves, and our image of ourselves is coloured by how we live up to the goals. When we don’t achieve one hundred percent of our goals, it is considered a failure – even though we went ninety-five percent toward achieving what we set out to do.
I don’t have to get A* in all my subjects, and not getting A* in all my subjects is not a failure. Not being admitted to Cambridge is not a failure. The running in the hamster wheel is of my own making, and stepping outside of it – leaner and fitter – doesn’t mean that I’m like I was two or three years ago.
I only have to get regular A’s and B’s to get into the local university here. I have that already. I don’t have to run in the hamster wheel any longer. I can slow down, take it easy, enjoy things. I will even have time to get back into singing again, and not constantly put that aside as an unnecessary “luxury” that I can do later.
How the hell have I failed? I have Mark, I live here, I have the present, I have a future, and I have a pretty good past.Time to get a party started, I think. I deserve one.
listen to that man of yours, he seems pretty smart :p
He is, isn’t he?
Beautiful positivity and strength! Great song selection, too. (:
Exactly
I’m so glad Mark has said that to you – it’s what I wanted to say, but I hadn’t even realised that until I read Mark’s words.
He’s absolutely right, of course, and so are you from what you’ve said as a result.
Now enjoy your new-found ‘freedom’, and make sure that man of yours knows how grateful you are to have him!
I’ve got a question about the UK university system. Once you are in a university, is it possible to transfer to a different university? We have that option here and it basically means that if you prove yourself in that first one or two years, you can then apply to somewhere else with a high likelihood of success. The reason for that is the massive drop-out rate after first year.
If things are the same in the UK then, if you still /want/ to go to Cambridge then you should be able to do so. I think.
Well, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. I think you can do it between regular universities, but Oxbridge is in a universe of its own.
Ah kk. Might be worth finding out though. Persistence is a wonderful thing.
He’s very astute, that man of yours. Enjoy the party!
Absolutely the right perspective!
But what’s A*? Is that like an A+ in the US? Where I went there was no real difference between an A & A+ other than a warm, fuzzy feeling.
A* means that you’re in the top ten percent of the A-grade recipients of your year.
Interesting. The US doesn’t do anything like that. We just have overall class ranks, but that applies to your accumulative grade point average (GPA).
It is nice when The mirror held up for us reflects back the same wonderful person the mirror holder (Mark) already sees!