Whaaaaaat?!
Found out something interesting today.
I was discussing with my mother the state of education in American and things drifted to how I got in this situation of paying for my own college education.
To remind of this situation, both of my sisters education was paid by my father. One sister went to the University of Michigan where the tuition was about 40K a year. My other sister went to the University of Texas where the tuition was comparable to mine. However, after finding out that I didn’t have perfect grades, he said he wouldn’t pay “another brass penny” for me to go to college with the grades I was receiving.
The interesting thing I found out today was that my grades are better than both of my sisters’ and that I’ve been a better student then they were since kindergarten. Another thing is that my father never knew what their grades were while every semester, I was required to not only tell him, but also give him an official transcript.
Is it just me, or does this seem a little bit unfair?
Mother says he put all the pressure on me because of my academic past and because he had really high hopes for me. I mean really, my eldest sister has an undgrad degree in Microbiology and she’ll be gradating from medical school next year with a focus in Pediatrics. My other sister holds an undergad degree in communications and has a management position at Disney World. She’s about to attend business school now for a MBA.
She says that since my grades were supposedly so much better and because I went to a top ranked engineering school, he thought I don’t even know what really…I was supposed to rule the world one day or something?! I’m not perfect. I never have been. I don’t know why he expects me to be. I’m not even an engineer like him (and by the way he was on academic probation when he was in school! I’ve never even come close to that! Hmph!)
I guess some of the pressure was good as it instilled a since of a need for quality in me. I don’t call myself a perfectionist by any means, but when I make something or am part of something, I DO NOT accept anything that’s not quality.
At the same time though. He thinks HE was upset about my grades? I was suicidal. I mean all my life I’ve never really studied for anything and have always managed to get pretty perfect grades. Tech though….or Ma Tech, she regulates you pretty quick. Got my first, B, C….shock. Second semester freshman year. I don’t think I even ate for a week. Got kidney stones. Cried all the time. Made myself sick really… I’ve never been the same since.
They always say that when you graduate from a place like Georgia Tech you come out with more than just a degree. You gain SO MUCH character as well. I feel like a completely different person than I was when I got here.
I learned “hard back breaking you will never have a social life ever” work is the only kind of work that will get you a 4.0. Seriously. Time management is key. Don’t expect your professor/boss to care about anything other than their research/increasing profits. Male engineers are assholes (for the most part).
And the most important thing:
No one will ever be able to put more pressure on you than yourself.
I honestly don’t think I’ve lived up to my own expectations. I used to say that if I had to do it all again, I would have taken my scholarship to Clemson and ran. I would have studied biology and become a research scientist for the CDC. I might have even taken on those shots and become that virologist…
Now though, although Tech has been rough, I think I needed things to be rough to toughen me up a bit. I’ve had so many life changing experiences and met so many life changing people, I don’t think I’d ever trade that for anything.
