'VALEDICTORIAN'

I've been meaning to report on many 'goings on', I just haven't the time to do so, what with finals and all. I'm going to take about ten minutes to write a note on something that has been bothering me for some time.

This has to do with my personal life. I don't know what kind of audience I've been attracting with this blog. Do the people that visit care only about politics? Not that politics isn't everything, just that it is everything--including your personal life. Whether or not you agree with me, the following is, well, what it is...

About a week ago I was talking to my mother about college, grad school, my career goals, and the like. I told her that I have a 3.0 average, with about 9 credits to go before earning my B.A. in History. She gave me an astonished look and asked (you'll LOVE this...) 'why don't you have a 4.0 average?' Mind you, this from a person who did not do more than two years of college; yet she has the nerve to make the 'modest request' that I become valedictorian, all the while giving herself every excuse for not doing with her life what she always wanted (being a writer): "I'm a woman, I was raised in poverty, etc..." Don't get me wrong, I respect what my mother has had to endure to get to where she is, it's just that I don't think it's reasonable for her to ask that I take every possible advantage of my circumstance. I'm sure she had other options that she could've taken advantage of in her time, if only she had worked hard enough; but I'm not going to pounce on her for that because she's human. She did well, considering her circumstances--as have I. There is nothing wrong with getting through school without being valedictorian. She ought to be glad that I finished college period. She ought to be thanking the stars that I did it in a reasonable time period. She ought to be praising the lord that I did it well--not with a 2.0 or a 2.5, but a 3.0 average.

I hadn't realized how upset my mom's attitude had made me until this morning. I spent an hour and a half feeling bad about not having made enough 'close ties' to my professors during my college career, ignoring the fact that I'm getting my shit done, that I'm going to Arizona this summer on a paid internship (my second one since last summer, which I spent in North Carolina)--that my life is MORE than together. The thought finally hit me as I stood before the bathroom mirror, brushing my teeth, then pausing: 'what about the fact that I've done well, considering...'