Posted by sallyb on March 6, 2005, at 11:31:19
In reply to Re: I want to be Martha Stewart!!, posted by annierose on March 6, 2005, at 10:23:18
I was 16 when I was awarded a scholarship to Columbia. My Texan parents wouldn't allow me to accept it, they insisted I attend my fathers' alma mater and at 16 it never occurred to me that I could have possibly accepted the scholarship and asked someone from Columbia to come and speak to my parents. I needed guidance, encouragement, and lacked the self confidence to strike out on my own. Ergo, I procrastinated. I held onto that letter announcing my scholarship, I read and re read it over and over again, hoping against hope that something might work out to enable me to attend. The response deadline passed. Finally, several weeks later, I got a phone call from an irate Martha Stewart, announcing herself as a member of the alumni scholarship committee, and berating me for not responding to their generous offer. "Didn't I realize", she fumed, "that some other, more deserving student could have used those funds to attend her alma mater?". Victim of physical and emotional abuse that I was, I just stood there, holding the phone. The tirade continued for almost 30 minutes until Martha hung up on me. I quietly placed the phone in the cradle with tears running down my face. While Martha was justified in her frustration and lack of comprehension as to why a young girl would not have accepted the scholarship in a timely manner, her approach was indicative, I believe, of the temperament that would later land her in the penitentiary. I never forgot it. In later years, when a professor would blow up in class or single me out for some emphatic point or reprimand that was actually aimed at the entire class, I would inwardly crater, tears stinging my eyes, and I usually would never return to the class. I never finished my college education, financial issues always brought my subsequent attempts to a standstill, and I always wondered what would have happened if a 'kinder, gentler' Martha Stewart would have called and encouraged my parents to let me attend Columbia, rather than flame a bright and promising 16 year old for what she perceived as 'bad manners'. I wonder, now, how many young lives like mine her perfectionism impacted in a negative way over the years, through the power and influence she weilded not only at Martha Stewart Living, but Columbia and untold organizations she's taken upon herself to become involved in. I have thought of Martha often these past few months, and as I watch the cattle graze outside my kitchen window this morning, I know that I wouldn't want to be Martha. I hope and pray that some time for reflection and exposure to those less fortunate and less perfect than herself might have been just the epiphany she needed to make some positive change in her personality. Martha has much work to do, and so do I. ~SallyB
poster:sallyb
thread:467194
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050305/msgs/467331.html