allichaton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
allichaton) wrote2001-11-25 09:06 pm
allichaton) wrote2001-11-25 09:06 pm
(no subject)
Got 2k done today, and early, so I'm going to take the time to have a little rant, because this really bothered me.
My grandparents came up from San Diego for Thanksgiving, and stayed until Sunday morning. My grandpa took me driving around my high school parking lot, where he proceeded to tell me (again) that I was going to make my mark on the world. It was a nice thought, and flattering, so I just grinned and ducked my head and didn't really say anything in response. He went on to talk about Einstein, and people who come up with ideas like that and are remembered, and how everyone knows who Einstein is, and someday everyone could know who I was, and how I should go to college, because "learn-ed" people go to college and get Ph.D's and come up with theories like that. And through all this, I'm thinking "yeah, sure, it's a nice idea" and basically going along because he's peppering his "go to college" speech with "do what you love". And then, he goes and says "Writing a novel is fine, but it's just writing a novel..." and then goes off to talk about "learn-ed" people and college again. It was about that time that I started tuning him out and not really LISTENING to what he was saying, because that pissed me off. Maybe writing a novel was just writing a novel to him, but it's not to me. I LOVE writing. That is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And it's not "just writing a novel" to me. There have been writers who made differences, who everyone knows. Why do I have to be someone that everyone knows because of science or math? Why can't I be someone that everyone knows because of literature? I don't like math, I don't like science. I like writing, damn it, and I don't put up with with people putting it down like that! I love my grandpa, I really do, but I think he's old-fashioned and too focused on what HE thinks are accomplishments. Science and math can change the world, but they can't change a life the way words can. They can't move people to tears or laughter. It's that power that I love, being able to write something that moves people, not machines. And that's what he doesn't realize. What I'm afraid he'll never realize.
My grandparents came up from San Diego for Thanksgiving, and stayed until Sunday morning. My grandpa took me driving around my high school parking lot, where he proceeded to tell me (again) that I was going to make my mark on the world. It was a nice thought, and flattering, so I just grinned and ducked my head and didn't really say anything in response. He went on to talk about Einstein, and people who come up with ideas like that and are remembered, and how everyone knows who Einstein is, and someday everyone could know who I was, and how I should go to college, because "learn-ed" people go to college and get Ph.D's and come up with theories like that. And through all this, I'm thinking "yeah, sure, it's a nice idea" and basically going along because he's peppering his "go to college" speech with "do what you love". And then, he goes and says "Writing a novel is fine, but it's just writing a novel..." and then goes off to talk about "learn-ed" people and college again. It was about that time that I started tuning him out and not really LISTENING to what he was saying, because that pissed me off. Maybe writing a novel was just writing a novel to him, but it's not to me. I LOVE writing. That is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And it's not "just writing a novel" to me. There have been writers who made differences, who everyone knows. Why do I have to be someone that everyone knows because of science or math? Why can't I be someone that everyone knows because of literature? I don't like math, I don't like science. I like writing, damn it, and I don't put up with with people putting it down like that! I love my grandpa, I really do, but I think he's old-fashioned and too focused on what HE thinks are accomplishments. Science and math can change the world, but they can't change a life the way words can. They can't move people to tears or laughter. It's that power that I love, being able to write something that moves people, not machines. And that's what he doesn't realize. What I'm afraid he'll never realize.