Barack Obama Tells Students Failure Is ‘Okay,’ Gives Several Hardass Asian Parents a Collective Heart Attack
Dear President Obama,
Where in the world were you when I was growing up? Why weren’t you speaking to me in school, telling me that lots of successful people experience failure, instead of saying, “If you are not the very best, then you are a total failure; if you are a failure, you are dead to us,” like my parents? Couldn’t you have taken them aside at some point and been like, “Hey, your daughter seems pretty smart and very enthusiastic about taking her life in a unique direction that will no doubt be successful. But sometimes, she’ll slip a little on the way. Try not to go too hard on her for that A minus or decision to be an English major. Eventually she’ll have the ability to write about you in a blog that’s accessible from all over the world, and don’t you want those words to be nice? Just a little advice.”
“BEING SUCCESSFUL IS HARD?” Why didn’t I hear this years ago? This sentence alone could have saved me about 3,496 tears and hours of therapy. For crying out loud, don’t you think I could’ve used this little pep talk a couple of decades ago, sir? Hell, I could have used this pep talk LAST WEEK. Sigh.
Lastly, what’s up with the “that’s okay” phrase you used with the kids today? What does that mean? Who says that? I heard “that’s okay” when I brought home a 4.0 GPA instead of an 4.3 and asked, “Isn’t that good?” And when I offered my parents tickets to see me perform in my junior high musical (“Eh, that’s okay”). But acknowledging that a kid might fuck up a couple times in their life and saying it’s “okay?” That I just don’t understand.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Talk to you soon!
xoxo
Diana
[HuffPo: Obama School Speech - Full Video]
Source: CNN
Filed under: "That's Okay?" Seriously?, Failure, Hardass Asian Parents, Hardly Brainwashing, President Barack Obama, President Obama Talks to Students, Speeches, Students
