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0 pointsjacquesm16y ago0 comments

That may be because everybody here would agree that in Patricks position they'd do the same thing, but hardly anybody can see themselves even getting to parity with what you've done.

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cperciva16y ago· 1 in thread

Sure, one of the major reasons most of us haven't saved a drowning child is a lack of opportunity; but is that any different in the case of my accomplishments? I'd say that the largest reason most people haven't done the things I've done is that most people weren't born to Oxford-educated parents, one a Chemistry professor, the other a high school mathematics teacher.

I can't point to anything I've accomplished as being entirely independent of the advantages my parents gave me; what makes my circumstances any different from Patrick's?

jacquesmOP16y ago

Ok, good point :)

Let me try to put it this way:

I want't born stupid, but my family situation was pretty lousy to begin with (father violent and alcoholic), so my mom divorced when I was 6 and life was pretty tough for her, my sister and myself until I got to high school.

But I did eventually get to high school. There it got tougher, the first year I tried to learn as much as I could, pretty much scored straight A's, but was despised for it by my class mates, failed the second year, dropped out at 17 after failing again. My home situation steadily worsened during those years and at some point it looked like living with my dad would actually be the preferred situation.

Bad mistake... Anyway, by 17 I was working for a bank in the mailroom, eventually someone in the IT department gave me a break and I've been doing pretty good ever since.

And now for the but bit :)

So, even if I didn't have oxford educated parents, I know that I could not have matched you, even if I had wanted to.

The reason for that is simple, see, in spite of my 'rough' (nothing compared to some people in this thread though) start in life I know fairly well which bits I got through persistence and which bits because I got lucky.

I chalk up your living circumstances to luck, just as Patricks presence in the pool that day was luck, just like me getting a break.

So Patrick can take 'credit' for doing what he did, I can take credit for making the most of that one break I got and you can rightly take credit for the things you've achieved.

Circumstances made them possible, but the hard work that went in is what you get to take the credit for. Yours was a lucky situation, but plenty of people might not have made that much of it, myself included. I know my limitations. I also know what I'm good at :)

Everything in life is one part circumstance, one part what you do with it. So, you achieved well over and beyond what most people born to two educated parents would have achieved and I think that's what you are being recognized for.

People save other peoples lives on a daily basis and it literally is the most natural thing in the world. I prefer to think that anybody would respond to a child in danger that way.

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