In the course of my summer in Washington, D.C., I have gotten to know a number of people my age whose educational background is vastly different from mine. My schooling has always been in the Alabama public education system, and the majority of that time was spent in a rural-suburban town. Most of my high school graduating class will never obtain a four-year degree. I had never before known someone who attended boarding school and went on to attend an Ivy League university. Now I know several and while they are similar to me in many ways, their self-confidence and sense of entitlement stands in stark contrast to mine.
Most of our elders have decried these entitled young adults as lazy with an extremely inflated regard for their own abilities and accomplishments. I have seen a grain of truth in that, both in the highly educated students I am around currently and in the steady stream of complaining Facebook posts from acquaintances ?back home.
I have also noted a number of advantages that this personality trait confers upon my new friends. They are not only highly qualified for the internships, scholarships and other opportunities they apply for, but they also are fully aware of their qualifications. This transfers to a lack of reservations about asserting themselves to professors, potential employers and important contacts. They have no problem calling a distinguished alumnus of their alma mater and asking for advice, employment or favors. For example, when one of my Ivy League friends had a question about her career prospects in diplomacy, she simply called a U.S. ambassador to ask.
I can safely say I do not have the gumption to even contact a distinguished UA alumnus like E.O. Wilson or Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, let alone to ask for favors. However, my new friend’s confidence in her ability to do so is certainly a great ?advantage over my networking shyness.
While my parents place high expectations on me like my Ivy League friends’ parents place on them, I was always taught to achieve through the principle of fairness and of the need to go through established processes to reach my goals. I was never taught this creative drive to achieve through whatever means or connections necessary. I was never taught, as one of these friends put it, “how to get what I want from people.”
These lessons reveal major obstacles to achieving my career goals. It will be an uphill battle for me to mold my mind into a more accurate opinion of my qualifications, transform my shyness into friendly assertiveness and to teach myself that I am equally entitled to high offices as these Ivy League students. I urge my peers at The University of Alabama to do likewise. Otherwise, we’re all going to be left behind.
Leigh Terry is a junior majoring in ?economics. Her column runs biweekly.
