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humansofnewyork:
““I never saw myself as a smart person. Definitely not book smart. Maybe smart in other ways. I never liked school all that much. No matter how hard I tried, I could never reach past a B. I even got a tutor in high school, and she...

“I never saw myself as a smart person. Definitely not book smart. Maybe smart in other ways. I never liked school all that much. No matter how hard I tried, I could never reach past a B. I even got a tutor in high school, and she was great, but my grades didn’t really improve. I was intimidated by how well other students could write and speak. I didn’t think I’d ever reach that level. I figured that college just wasn’t for me. After graduation I took a year off and backpacked through Southeast Asia. I loved it so much. I didn’t want to leave. When I came home I decided to major in history, because at least I could keep learning about Asia. I’m almost finished now. I made it through with about a ‘B’ average. Last term I even got nominated for an award by my favorite professor. His name is Arne Kislenko. He’s a little bit of a hard ass. He expects a lot. He doesn’t even post lecture slides. But he has stories and tidbits for everything. Even though I almost failed his class, I registered for two more because I learned so much. I wrote my final paper on Thai Foreign Policy from 1932 to 1945. He handed it back with a note that said: ‘See me.’ He told me that he was nominating me for the Dean’s List Essay Award. I was the only student he chose. I didn’t win, but I didn’t care. It showed me what I could do if I write about a subject I care about. It was the first time I’d ever been recognized for something academic, and it came from the smartest person I know.“
(Toronto, Canada)

— 2 years ago with 4516 notes

psych2go:

You can find the sources of these posts on psych2go.net

(via psych2go)

— 2 years ago with 88344 notes

nprfreshair:

With An All-Female Crew, ‘Maiden’ Sailed Around The World And Into History
In the 1980s, Tracy Edwards dreamed of racing a sailboat around the world. But at the time, open ocean sailboat racing was a male-dominated sport. She was only able to sign on as a cook for an all-male team in the 1985-86 Whitbread Round the World Race, a grueling 33,000 mile endeavor.
Afterward, when she still wasn’t able to crew, she decided to take matters into her own hands: “My mom always told me, ‘If you don’t like the way the world looks, change it,’” she says. “So I thought, OK, I will.”
In 1989, Edwards, then 26-years-old, assembled an all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race. The idea was unthinkable to many of the men in the world of yacht-racing, and backlash was intense.
“We had so much obstruction and criticism and anger,” she says. “Guys used to say to us, with absolute certainty, 'You’re going to die.’”
But Edwards didn’t back down: “We all became very aware, as a crew, as a team, that we were fighting for all women, and actually anyone who’s been told they can’t do anything,” she says.
Edwards and her 12-woman crew restored an old racing yacht, which they christened Maiden, and finished the nine-month race second in their class. Now, a new documentary, Maiden, retraces their voyage.

— 2 years ago with 349 notes

psych2go: