I have inspired a diary entry, or maybe rather, an introduction in a diary entry. I dropped by a recently updated diary the other night and signed the guestbook, this prompted the owner of said guestbook to visit my diary. This visit has resulted in two paragraphs about Christian hypocrites because I reminded the diary owner of a few PSAs he had failed to previously mention. See people, this is why you sign guestbooks, you may inspire someone.
I'm debating about whether I should link this diary. I linked the g*book, so I guess I will, even though he didn't link me.
I watched a movie on PBS the other night called 5 Girls. I guess it's an independent film of sorts, but it was kind of like American High, you know, that tv series that followed kids around high school? It followed, you guessed it, five girls around Chicago for a year. What I found particularly interesting was how the family impacted each girl's life.
I think all of the girls were honors students at their respective high schools, or they were when filming started. But while one girl was accepted to Stanford when she graduated, there was another who was doubting she could make it into the National Honor Society. The first girl had an intact nuclear family with a strong parental presence, the other got kicked out of her house when she threatened her mother and moved in with her invalid grandmother and got involved with a convict under house arrest.
Of course, the dividing factor could have been the economic disparity, but they really weren't all that different. They were both lower middle class, one was just a bit closer to the middle than the lower.
You know what? Who knows what the difference was? They were just two very different girls who made very different decisions because they had different priorities. For one, getting into a good college was her primary goal, for the other, she was the first of her family to even consider going to college, so if she didn't, if she instead chose to marry the convict she was engaged to, well, it didn't matter much. No one expected much out of her.
Maybe that's it, the expectations. If you have someone who expects a lot out of you, you push yourself to succeed, but if you don't have anyone to work for, well, you're not going to get very far. Of course, there's always those who break down under the pressure and fall into a terrible pit of depression and self destruction, like my brother.
Fortunately for the girl, she had a French teacher with expectations for her, so she ended up going to the University of Illinois and was reportedly doing well.
"I don't talk too much, I keep to myself and my friends, because a lot of things happen when you start talking." --Amber, 5 Girls
How true.