Press on!

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent."

This quote sits in a frame on my desk, to remind me of this truth daily. It does a poor job at it. It was my father's, and really it occasionally reminds me that I would like for him to be proud of me. And I would like to be proud of me. I actually truly believe in what this quote says (as I tried to say in my last post).

I once tried to explain to an acquaintance about why I thought Mensa was an annoying group. I said "I could get into Mensa!" and she interpreted this as a braggart remark. Which is not how I intended it, as I am fully and complete unimpressed with my intellectual accomplishments, so why the hell should Mensa be so impressed with them. I had had an image of Mensa (The High Intelligence Society) being just that, people who were of high intelligence. If I can get in, than it is nothing more than people overstating their importance and attempting to raise themselves above others by use of an ambiguous definition.

The people who achieve more, I believe, are those who learn to work hard for each step they take. I didn't have to work until college, and didn't learn how to work at achieving in college. There were two types of people who were high achievers in college: those who *STILL* didn't have to work (and there were a few) and those who knew how to work.

So again, I come to the point, I have no ambition. I have no doubt that people will interpret some of my ramblings here as arrogance, as the acquaintance from high school did, when they are intended as anything but. I intend to point out that the numbers are useless and unimportant (and yet we're still forcing our schools to operate to a number system...)