Acollege student once told me, "I don’t need to be happy-just successful." At the time, I let it pass1-students, after all, regularly say surprising things. Indeed, I like this quality in their conversation...Acollege student once told me, "I don’t need to be happy-just successful." At the time, I let it pass1-students, after all, regularly say surprising things. Indeed, I like this quality in their conversations. But this assertion2 has an unsettling3 quality to it once you let it seep in4. The student dismisses happiness and does so in such a perfunctory5 way. It’s as if she’s saying, "Let’s get on to the important stuff"-professional success.It’s an odd juxtaposition6. She needn’t be happy-"just successful." She places one in opposition to the other.She’s not alone in her feeling. At a workshop for college professors, I listened to a drama professor describe an acting class7 in which he asked students to write about times in their lives when they had experienced strong emotions, such as anger or jealousy.展开更多
文摘Acollege student once told me, "I don’t need to be happy-just successful." At the time, I let it pass1-students, after all, regularly say surprising things. Indeed, I like this quality in their conversations. But this assertion2 has an unsettling3 quality to it once you let it seep in4. The student dismisses happiness and does so in such a perfunctory5 way. It’s as if she’s saying, "Let’s get on to the important stuff"-professional success.It’s an odd juxtaposition6. She needn’t be happy-"just successful." She places one in opposition to the other.She’s not alone in her feeling. At a workshop for college professors, I listened to a drama professor describe an acting class7 in which he asked students to write about times in their lives when they had experienced strong emotions, such as anger or jealousy.
