What is much harder to handle is the sense that you have to live up to the mark someone else has set for you. The grades become too important, the competition too frantic, the fear of disappointing those who believe in you turns into an overwhelming nightmare. And it is desperately unfair to the boy. He cannot live his parents' life over again for them. He cannot make up for their own lacks, their own unfulfillments. He cannot carry their torch -- only his own.

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About Sydney J. Harris

Sydney J. Harris was a 20th-century American journalist. Sydney J. Harris was an American journalist for the Chicago Daily News and, later, the Chicago Sun-Times. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Family — The ties of kinship, parenting, and unconditional love

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