I want to take a minute to thank the many sane people whose stability, kindness, and acts of dedication make it possible for the crazy folks to fly.
Not everyone is an uberstudent. Not everyone wants to be. That's wonderful and no less valuable than burning with an all-consuming passion for something(s). I was always jealous - and admiring - of the folks at Olin who managed to balance their schoolwork with sleep, maybe some soccer, a club or two, the ones who quietly built up their lab, shelved books, talked to their girlfriends on the phone... took time to breathe, have a more normal - if it's possible to be normal at Olin - life. It's wasn't apathy. They still cared. They just showed that caring in very different ways.
A good many of the most valuable people in any society will never burn with zeal for anything except the integrity and health and well-being of their own families - and if they achieve those goals, we need ask little more of them. There are other valuable members of a society who will never generate conviction about anything beyond the productive output of their hands or minds - and a sensible society will be grateful for their contributions. Nor will it be too quick to define some callings as noble and some as ordinary. One may not quite accept Oliver Wendell Holmes' dictum - "Every calling is great when greatly pursued" - but the grain of truth is there.
--John Gardner
Not everyone is an uberstudent. Not everyone wants to be. That's wonderful and no less valuable than burning with an all-consuming passion for something(s). I was always jealous - and admiring - of the folks at Olin who managed to balance their schoolwork with sleep, maybe some soccer, a club or two, the ones who quietly built up their lab, shelved books, talked to their girlfriends on the phone... took time to breathe, have a more normal - if it's possible to be normal at Olin - life. It's wasn't apathy. They still cared. They just showed that caring in very different ways.
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