Sunday, January 10, 2010

Accomplished Individual

Accomplished is a word I have been thinking of lately, or let me say could not sleep last night because that word kept buzzing in my head, and showed up in my dreams. Oh what a sweet dream.

Who is an accomplished individual? Someone of great achievements? The worth of an accomplishment, is that on face value or the story of the individual matters more?

Lets look at Mary and Jane my fictional Love interests, and lets say an Accomplished lady in academics is what I am looking for. Someone with an equivalent or higher degree.

Stunning Mary and Jane walks into a room in good spirit and smiling faces. As soon as they introduce themselves by name, the next question I have for them is "What degrees are you working on?" Well its a student environment so pardon my rudeness.

Jane is working on a Bachelors degree in Computer sciences. Mary on the other hand is a Ph.D student in Chemical Engineering, specifically Catalysis. My accomplishment light bulb goes on. Whom do you think I will fall for? The obvious candidate is Mary, so I invite her to a corner, we sit down and converse on chemical elements, organic chemistry, and the importance of chemistry in our daily lives. She enlightens me on catalysis, her projects and why she decided to study chemical engineering.

We say our goodbyes and looking forward to meet again.By evenings end I have learned about Mary:
-Brilliant and very studious, has always been a straight A student
- Her parents are Physicians ( A Surgeon and a Pediatrician)
-They had set-up a college fund for her. She got fantastic scholarship opportunities.
-She is a hardworking lady and has very specific and lofty goals to achieve.
-She has traveled the world and worked for a prestigious company before deciding to pursue a higher degree in chemical engineering.

On the way home,dandy and happy, I tell my friend Fred about Mary and he tells me about Jane:
-Jane's parents divorced when she was 12.Her mother died when she was 20.
-She worked odd jobs for a while and finally got a stable job as an assistant teacher.
-She is a brilliant student but not straight A's student
-Finally got a scholarship to study in College after three years of trying.
-Her biggest dream is to teach computer sciences at a Community College.

Now back to that word Accomplishment, an Accomplished individual. How does it play out with Jane and Mary now? Will this keep me up another night, with another sweet dream?