Opportunities

A few years after I graduated, I met a first year studying at UC Berkeley. I asked him how he liked school so far. He said “It’s ok, I guess. It’s not really that big a deal.”

My initial inclination was to say “Do you realize just how fortunate you are? You are part of an extremely tiny minority of people in the world that get to attend one of the greatest public universities on the earth. There are millions of people that come to this country and work themselves to the bone so that their children will get an opportunity like this. I understand that your response is meant to convey some vague sense of modesty, but it comes across as incredibly arrogant. Berkeley is ‘ok, I guess?’ Show some gratitude.”

In actual fact, all I said was “Oh, ok.”