I understand and appreciate many of the thoughts on this thread. I think it is though missing a few other important factors.
Immediately after touching on having potentially top notch basketball skills, the conversation moved to earnings and also somewhat about costs and school debt. As is almost always the case in the USA, MONEY becomes the focus. Of course money and the opportunities and security they can bring is very important. But, it is NOT the only thing that people need to consider, and in my eyes at least not the most important.
Firstly some young people grow up with a LOVE for learning. This often can be a lifelong endeavor in and of itself. This then may lead to a love of a field of interest and one wanting that to play a major role in one's life. It's pretty rare for someone to be an elite athlete and qualify for an athletic scholarship at a premiere basketball program AND being a superb student who is capable of greatness in a field other than sports. Also, this might apply to both students who come from families of means and those that do not!
I will tell a bit more about my background, education and life experiences to hopefully help clarify. My mother was a JHS teacher in the South Bronx and graduated from NYU. That was pretty unusual way back when for most women. My father worked in the US Post Office and while extremely bright didn't get a college education and was an unhappy man all of his life, at least partially because he did not come close to using his intelligence.
I grew up in a lower middle class family in the Bronx in an apartment building off the Grand Concourse (that part in and of itself is somewhat telling) a few short blocks from Yankee Stadium. My younger brother and baby sister all attended NYC public schools. My elementary school was pretty much all white and almost all Jewish. My JHS was on the cusp of a mostly black neighborhood, so it was very mixed. My mother's teaching in a school which was almost all children of African - Anerican descent and my diverse JHS played huge roles in who I became and am.
I then had the great fortune of being accepted into Stuyvesant HS, then and now, one of the premiere HS's in the US and probably the world. My brother went to the Bronx HS of Science (compable quality and level to Stuyvesant academically) and my sister to Music and Art HS (as her interests were more on the creative side).
I am not telling this to brag but to further clarify the above comments. At the time I was there Stuyvesant was an all boys school. It later became co-Ed and is now the focus of some controversy as it brings in very few black and Hispanic students. That's a discussion for another time and place. Every kid in my HS class was very, very bright. Every kid went to college directly after HS and approximately 1/3 or more to Ivies or comparable schools. Being in that environment brought each of us a great deal. First of all, there was never any discipline problems, so learning was always taking place. Every class was taught to the brightest kids in the class, not the middle. We had to take four years of science and math, which included Physics (after Chemistry and Geology), and the same in math and also Mechanical drawing. There were no AP classes as every class was that.
I state this as this is what attending a Yale, Harvard or Stanford entails. Of course there are extremely bright students at ND, U Conn or many state or local universities(I graduated from CCNY) throughout the country. Every student is outstanding academically.
A funny thought and comparison just came to my mind. An analogy athletically might be the U17 US women's national basketball team, which takes the creme de la creme who then choose the best women's basketball program.
Getting back to HS, in my soph class the young man who became valeditorian was in my biology class. He was so brilliant that myself, other students and even some of the very best teachers there couldn't understand all he was communicating. He went to Harvard, so that was taking Stuyvesant even one step further. He also, happened to be black.
I was very bright but not as academically oriented or money oriented. I fell out academically towards the bottom quarter of my class, because I didn't study incessantly and had other interests including sports, girls and most significantly beginning to help others. I became a social worker who came out of Columbia University School of SW (then and now one of the premiere SW schools) earning just under $12,000. Fifteen years later I was the head of a SW Dept with ten MSW's and two art and two music therapists and was earning $40,000.
This choice also enabled me to meet my wife of 43 years, a recently retired RN. We met at a camp for children with heart disease where we earned very little money but life lessons and things that were "priceless". One of my best friends then worked every summer and vacation in a top hotel as a waiter and made great money.
I made much better money when I became a psychotherapist with my own practice but it also gave me the control and flexibility to be with my wife and kids when I so desired.
It also enabled me /us to become a father / parent to my two children now 37 and 34 and to do and be there for every meaningful event in their lives. When you strive for and make lots of money sometimes that can interfere with one's relationship and family choices.
So what I am saying, is young people unfortunately are pushed earlier and earlier to decide what they want to be. It then requires enormous talent, focus and discipline to begin to excel in ones chosen field and endeavor. Hopefully each person chooses what "they truly love" and make it happen.
Just to tie this up a bit more. My eldest who is my son, has decided that making lots of money, is most important to provide the kind of life he wants for his partner, his son and himself. This is twenty year after getting his Eagle Scout and becoming his troops leader and inaugurating quite a few Eagle Scouts himself. My daughter is a fifth grade teacher in the NYC public school system, with two Masters degrees and this summer is the director / principal of a site with 45 Teach for America Corp members.
So having a full, balanced life where one gives back to others and their community to me at least, was way more important than being financially rich!
Money in and of itself does not make anyone truly happy, although it sure helps make life easier!
Sorry again for my long winded writings but hope it added something!
Bronx23
