<p>From Tucker Max’s forum…some middle school esque language.</p>
<p>Quote:
Originally Posted by Email #1
You may remember me writing about you in an essay addressed to
the U of C admissions, among other things. I’m at a pivotal moment in my
life right now. You are truthfully one of my heroes, and I would
appreciate your advice.</p>
<p>Some background: I’m 24. Until recently, my life was characterized
by indecision and self-pity. I wasn’t interested in college after I
graduated. Living with my alcoholic dad and manic-depressive mom, I
steeled myself with ambivalence. I had to. Once I discovered that my
dad was part of a coke ring within the US Postal Service, and after
physically blocking my mom’s car all night in the driveway so she
didn’t go kill herself, I had little interest in anything. So I
diversified my hobbies to create a veneer of interest, because I had
no idea who I was. No ****, I actually went to Massage Therapy school
at one point. No passion, just boredom–my ambitions were in constant
flux, and I was racked with self-pity.</p>
<p>Amazingly, my family life has brightened. My dad is sober. My mom is
a renewed spirit, and over the past year or so, you have been
instrumental in my development as a man. I don’t need to flesh out
the reasons why–you probably understand.</p>
<p>Because of my lack of education, I’m doing uninspired, cubicle office
work for mediocre pay (35K a year). To top it off, I live in Chicago,
and my job is in Elk Grove Village, and I have no car.</p>
<p>I spend 4 hours a day in public transit to work in a job that I hate,
just to make ends meet.</p>
<p>I gave it my all on the application to the U of C, and got waitlisted.
They had a record admittance this year I believe, and are only
admitting 6-10 people from the waitlist. I talked to Jerry Doyle this
evening to plainly discuss my admission chances, and he said that he
would correspond with me this weekend via e-mail.</p>
<p>I have to be one of those people. I don’t know how else to convey to
the staff that I will be a force in that school, and that it is my
dream, but I’m going to have to somehow do it tomorrow. I need your
help. I am in your debt, which means little coming from a random
internet fan, but I mean it.</p>
<p>My answer:</p>
<p>Quote:
Originally Posted by Tucker
Here is the problem with your approach: You are placing too much emphasis on external indications of success and not enough emphasis on determing what you actually want to do. Why do you care about going to the U of C? I am an alumni there, I can tell you authoritatively that going there is probably not going to change much of anything for you. You say you will be a force in that school–and that may be true–but so what? Say you get in and are a force for four years…what then? By itself, it changes nothing. Getting into the UC, or any school, does not magically confer some sort of success or achievement on you. It is just a school.</p>
<p>So many people think that if they go to the “right” school and take the “right” major they will get the “right” job and this in turn will lead to the “right” life. But you know what those people realize a few years later when they are sitting in their cubicles doing pointless ********? That’s not the way it works. Success in life does not come from getting into the “right” schools or getting the “right” job or from doing the thing you think you are “supoosed” to do. Success in life comes from figuring out who you are and what you want from life, and then going out and getting it. How does going to the University of Chicago help you acieve that goal? Where does it fit into your larger goals? Do you even know what your larger goals are? If not, how do you know that you need to go to the U of C?</p>
<p>A school is nothing more than a means to an end. It is a place to continue your education and to prepare you for the life ahead of you. Almost everything that I learned at the U of C, I could have learned at other places. The books are the same there as they are anywhere. I learned a lot at that school because I put in the time and the effort and the blood and the sweat, and because of a few specific people that helped me develop into a man. What developed me in to me was my work ethic and the relationships I built. That school had almost nothing to do with making me in to Tucker Max. And I doubt it will have anything to do with making you into who you are.</p>
<p>Stop putting your sense of achievement into the hands of others or onto ephemeral and meaningless goals that society has told you are the “right” ones, and grab onto your life and go do with it what you were meant to do. I don’t know what the answer for you is, you have to find that out yourself, but I can tell you definitively that a bunch of twats in the University of Chicago admissions office do not have it.</p>