Dani

When I was training to be a battered women’s advocate, my supervisor said something that really blew my mind:

But the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensure that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedents and startle civilizations with their progress.

And now we’re supposed to go back to our normal lives. That’s what people do. They have these amazing experiences with another person, and then they just go home and clean the bathroom or whatever.

If I have ever loved you, then I always will…. in some way… in some form. No matter what has transpired, or the time and distance we’ve put between us – if you are a person I have held in my heart then I will always care for you. If you hurt me I will have forgiven you - if only for myself so I could heal and move on. If you gave me your trust I will never break it, even if you broke mine. I spread neither vindictive lies nor uncomfortable truths - I will either speak of you fondly or not at all. But no matter what the reason we are no longer in each other’s lives, please know that if we were once close I will most likely think of you often and that I am wishing you well.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

Roughly one in seven Ivy League students is a legacy, a child of alumni. Admissions data from the top thirty colleges in the nation reveal that legacies have a 45 percent greater chance of being admitted—that’s the equivalent of 160 additional SAT points. And numerous studies have shown that legacies are significantly less qualified than other students (including affirmative action applicants) on virtually every measure of academic ability. Roughly 15 percent of freshmen enrolled in America’s top universities are white students who failed to satisfy their university’s minimum requirements. Harvard admits fewer than 6 percent of all applicants but 30 percent of legacies, the average of which scored lower on standardized tests than the average nonlegacy student who was admitted. White students who benefited from legacy preferences are nearly twice as prevalent on college campuses as nonwhites who benefited from affirmative action.