{"id":556,"date":"2012-06-24T10:01:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-24T14:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/?p=556"},"modified":"2012-06-24T10:01:52","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T14:01:52","slug":"effortless-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/2012\/06\/24\/effortless-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Effortless Perfection\u00e2\u20ac\u009d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

From Harvard Magazine:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Perfect\"<\/a>This past winter, a class of \u00e2\u20ac\u212273 graduate asked me whether students still spend hours lingering over meals. He recalled his Harvard as heady and carefree, a place for reading great books and whiling away days in conversation. He had been saddened by an article in this magazine that chronicled the over-programmed lives of Harvard undergraduates today; among other alarums, it had mourned the death of the two-hour lunch. I looked up the piece (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nonstop\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/a>) and likewise found it upsetting. It painted Harvard undergraduates as so over-scheduled, they barely shower or sleep, let alone linger over lunch. But I knew it was not entirely accurate. At the very least, the article did not accurately reflect my<\/em> Harvard experience. One of the greatest delights of my two years here has been dawdling in dining halls, listening, talking, and laughing with friends. I now realize the article bothered me in the same way I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m bothered by people who talk too much. I see in their annoying behavior a shade of something I fear I also do. Likewise, reading about Harvard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153superstars\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who \u00e2\u20ac\u0153do it all\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reminded me of a role I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d once tried to fill, now consciously refused, feared falling back into, and also was terrified of abandoning. I arrived at Harvard as a successful student who never slacked off. I liked to think<\/em> my life well-balanced\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI played sports, kept close friends, spent time with my family, and even slept. But as I outwardly checked off markers of a good, happy life, inside, I was all turmoil. That \u00e2\u20ac\u0153carefree\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lifestyle was a daily struggle, a purposeful act. I was terrified of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not doing everything right.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Schedule, schoolwork, social life, family, fitness, eating, clothes, even demeanor: everything had to be just so. Everyone believed I was happy-go-lucky (except maybe my parents, lone witnesses of biweekly meltdowns), and I was largely happy. But the harder I tried to be perfect, the more my perfectionism became torture.<\/p>\n

Of course, in a sense it worked out. Affectation of effortless perfection got me into Harvard.<\/p>\n

More here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

via 3quarksdaily http:\/\/www.3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2012\/06\/effortless-perfection.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Harvard Magazine: This past winter, a class of \u00e2\u20ac\u212273 graduate asked me whether students still spend hours lingering over meals. He recalled his Harvard as heady and carefree, a place for reading great books and whiling away days in conversation. He had been saddened by an article in this magazine that chronicled the over-programmed … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Effortless Perfection\u00e2\u20ac\u009d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[153,245,6],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-reader","tag-3quarksdaily","tag-azra-raza","tag-ifttt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2skW4-8Y","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}