Signing up for Spanish Class
When I was living up in Arcata, Shacher came home one day with a small wooden box filled with small slips of paper upon which were written these kindly positive affirmations, "You are kind", "People care and love you", "A new day means new opportunities" and such. Of course the rest of us in the household, being cynics, came up with a competing box filled with depressing reminders of reality. "Your life is pretty much over", "Your future is a life in a cubicle", etc. But one that has always captured my heart was, "Other people your age are successful"*.
I'm fully comfortable with that, just as I'm comfortable that I'll never be an astronaut. There is great variation in humanity and I am happily resigned to being placed somewhere neatly in the middle of bell curve of human possibility, neither a wreck nor a shining star.
But then I read that Natalie Portman, other than looking like this:
Also was accepted to Harvard (at the time she was playing the Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace) where she received her Bachelors in Psychology.
So alright, I can accept that there are people that are more attractive than me AND smarter AND more successful. But she also is fluent in Hebrew and speaks French, Japanese, German and Arabic. Note that none of those languages are remotely related! Most don't even share a writing style much less and alphabet.
And really that is just too much. Natalie Portman you have gone too far. I am willing to be outdone by you, but you won't even leave me my mono-linguistic dignity?
I re-enrolled with City College today and tomorrow I register for Conversational Spanish. You haven't heard the last of me Natalie! And when you next do hear from me Señora, it won't be in one of the plethora of languages you understand!
*Corrected as per Steel's comment
I'm fully comfortable with that, just as I'm comfortable that I'll never be an astronaut. There is great variation in humanity and I am happily resigned to being placed somewhere neatly in the middle of bell curve of human possibility, neither a wreck nor a shining star.
But then I read that Natalie Portman, other than looking like this:
Also was accepted to Harvard (at the time she was playing the Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace) where she received her Bachelors in Psychology.
So alright, I can accept that there are people that are more attractive than me AND smarter AND more successful. But she also is fluent in Hebrew and speaks French, Japanese, German and Arabic. Note that none of those languages are remotely related! Most don't even share a writing style much less and alphabet.
And really that is just too much. Natalie Portman you have gone too far. I am willing to be outdone by you, but you won't even leave me my mono-linguistic dignity?
I re-enrolled with City College today and tomorrow I register for Conversational Spanish. You haven't heard the last of me Natalie! And when you next do hear from me Señora, it won't be in one of the plethora of languages you understand!
*Corrected as per Steel's comment
posted by Yen at
12:38 PM
6 Comments:
The actual quote was, "Other people your age are successful".
I often notice that optimists and pessimists have a real problem coexisting. Optimists like to use a positive vision of the future to inspire themselves and those around them to bring the vision to fruition. This just irritates pessimists, who prefer to bring attention to potential problems and avoid hyping expectations beyond what is likely. Personally, I am a lot happier as a pessimist. Employment and interpersonal relationships I find a lot easier when simply expecting less of others than when telling myself that things will be better next time. Pessimists are rarely disappointed, and surprisingly often are pleasantly surprised.
By
Unknown, at 4:36 PM
She also raps. http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=2922
You have to watch an ad first.
I'd have embedded that but i always forget how.
By
$9,000,000,000 Write Off, at 4:48 PM
Sony's link should be http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/index.shtml#mea=2922
By
Yen, at 5:38 PM
she also is a talented enough actress to have you practicially convinced that it could be acceptable, and possibly even romantic, for a 13 yr old girl and a 30-something yr old man to be meant for each other, in one of my favorite winter-y movies, beautiful girls.
p.s. if you need our old spanish textbook, just let me know!!
By
andrea, at 10:50 PM
hahaha!!
I have two things to say about your Natalie Portman post..
thing 1:
leave it to Shachar to be the only optimist in the house, the man is a ray of sunshine i tell you! :D
thing 2:
LOL, hahahahaha! So you may not be Natalie Portman, but you have a fabulous sense of humor about it! :D
By
Anonymous, at 2:26 PM
Totally true story: I have an old acquaintance that had such a major crush on her that he sort of surreptitiously stalked her across the Harvard campus. Totally awesome guy and not at all creepy - although I'm making him sound a little bit wierd. Basic description - skinny, sort of dorky but adorable, graffitti kid. One day, determined to meet her, he hung out in the Harvard yard with a backpack full of books pretending to be a fellow student. In any case, somehow he did in fact manage to strike up a conversation with Natalie Portman and had the balls to ask her on a date. She accepted his invitation. Anyhow, after asking him how it went, his response was - definitely would not go out with her again as she was one of the most boring people he'd ever been forced to make conversation with. I tell you this because A. all the beauty and smarts in the world apparently don't matter if you don't know the art of conversation and B. to remind you that you are one of the most interesting, amusing and challenging people that I've known.
By
Kate Wells, at 6:01 PM
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