Worst Advice (Week-end Assignment #3)

I'm afraid that it came from my beloved grandmother, now 98 years old.

She was hell-bent on my attending the elite Eastern women's college from which she had graduated forty-some years before it was my turn.  I had other ideas.  Well aware in high school that I had no well-formed ideas about my future, or half-formed ideas, or any other-formed ideas, I determined to attend a far less prestigious midwestern college known for its work-study program.  Although internships are a typical component of college programs today, they were few and far between thirty years ago.  The college on which I had set my sights was a pioneer in that regard.  It took a student five years to graduate, but that was because periodic semesters off-campus in employment or volunteer positions were required.

When I was accepted to both schools, I happily announced my plans to attend the latter.  My grandmother, usually unobtrusive where my generation was concerned, sprang into action.  Several phone calls later, I was regretfully accepting her school's offer of admission and turning down the one I really wanted.

In just how many ways was that a mistake?  Let's see: (1) I had attended small girls' schools for six years and found the atmosphere of a small women's college stifling.  I transferred after my second year. (2) I had no more idea of what I wanted to do with my life when I finished college than I had had when I finished high school. (3) I proceded to spend 20 years in a career which I enjoyed at times but for which I was temperamentally unsuited, and ended up making huge changes in midlife.

I don't blame my grandmother.  She loves me lots and didn't want me to lose out on the opportunity of a lifetime.  But I was in need of entirely different opportunties.  And I am trying REALLY hard to remember that now that I have college-age children of my own.

 

Walked: 3.0 miles.