Holden Caulfield's Antithesis

For your weekend, here is a good reading from NYT Magazine,a tale of three elite high school students struggling for elite colleges' scholarships. Personally, despite admirable competition spirit of those young minds (and their parents), I found the story daunting and somewhat scary. I mean, man, look at those credentials (not only in academic, but also high level French, cross country captain, flutist, novel writings, etc), the goal they set up, the way they made up their application, they don't seem like normal high school students I know.

And unlike Holden Caulfield of Catcher in The Rye, they don't quit.

Yet, one finale of the drama is the following:

It was her mother, who had logged in Maria’s PIN at various top schools that day, knowing her daughter wouldn’t have easy access to a computer as she interviewed. It was the Thursday that so many students across the country were on tenterhooks, waiting to hear from many of the Ivies, but that had slipped to the back of Maria’s mind. “You got into Princeton!” her mother told her. “And Columbia and the University of Chicago!”

Maria was tired. She was hungry. She didn’t feel like talking about college. It was one of those moments when it was hard to imagine that she would actually “ever enjoy the product of all my work.” She told her mother she’d call her back and hung up the phone.

If only they knew.

ps: Instead of Manager's (stupid) self-made quote on learning economics on the right sidebar, this is my line, "You can not learn economics without good coffee."