If you think education is expensive…

Lately I’ve been writing back and forth with a young friend of mine. She’s in her last stretch of high school, still not entirely sure of what she wants to do with her future or whether she can afford to go to college. A few days later, the Cal Alumni Association called me, and I signed up for a lifetime membership, partly in recognition of the opportunities that the school opened to me. As I balance these two events, I keep coming back to the same thought:

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
- Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University

Over a lifetime, the average college graduate makes a million dollars more than someone with only a high-school diploma.

Letters from a Young Writer, Part 3

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im willing to lern im only thirteen but i want to be a great author more than anything

I spent a lot of time wondering if I should write back. My day job cuts into my writing time enough as is, and I’m not really sure I believe that she wants to improve. Particularly in fan communities, many writers will praise each other and enjoy being praised, even if their work simply doesn’t measure up. Writing is less an end and more a means for growing closer. They write for community, because humans are storytellers by nature, because they enjoy sitting around the virtual campfire.

Basically it’s a circle-jerk of the ego.

It’s too bad that I’ve never really been friendly enough for that sort of thing.

Letters from a Young Writer, Part 2

Start from part 1.

do u think u can help me with my writing?

She made it sound so easy. I don’t think she understood what she asked.

I remember a story about a pianist, supposedly Vladimir Horowitz but probably apocryphal. After a concert, it’s said that a woman came up to speak with him, amazed by how well he played. “I’d give twenty years of my life to play like that!” she gushed.

Horowitz looked pleased. “Ma’am, that’s exactly what it takes!”