this has been chafing at me for over a day. i am going to get a little ranty about it.
why am i only “lucky” to have the good things in my life? and to counter that, why is something lackluster in my life always due to my own personal failings?
sure, i’ve had many strokes of good fortune in my life, or i wouldn’t be around anymore for one. additionally, i’ve got myriad personal failings, including the neverending desire to throttle the next person who attributes my accomplishments to luck.
but let’s be clear here. i have taken the luck where i could get it, and then moved mountains in my life to get where i am. you have no fucking idea where i started and how far i’ve hauled myself out of that mire to get here. you never will. but i can say that your type, “lucky” comment-maker, is the type that would have told me how very sorry you felt for me back in the day when i was fighting for my life and you were lounging around with an actual roof over your head. the type that felt pity and superiority over me and hoped i would enjoy my inevitable career in unskilled labor.
clearly, i intimidate you if you need to attribute my getting here to sheer luck of the draw. i should take that as a compliment. someday i might. but for now? fuck you.
Not luck, but hard work and determination. You should be proud of where you are.
By: Angela on June 30, 2011
at 3:49 am
The “luck” sentiment always pisses me off. It’s a backslap way of saying that something wasn’t earned and wasn’t deserved, and that the lucky person was randomly chosen from a herd, possibly consisting of those who *do* deserve something and those who do not.
They wish luck had something to do with it. They wish they didn’t suck. They wish you weren’t ahead of them. They wish it was random because their chances would be better. They wish you weren’t in the herd because they know it’s not random.
By: jc on July 1, 2011
at 1:13 pm
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of attributing other people’s successes to luck out of jealousy, disappointment or malice. Plus, the tendency of certain kinds of people to selectively attribute one’s successes to luck and one’s failures to character flaws is one of my biggest pet peeves in the world. Where do these assholes come from, anyway? Do they really think they know *everything*?
A postdoc in my lab told me yesterday that he thinks that 80% of the population is comprised of player-haters. Good God. I hope that’s wrong. That’s just depressing.
Far as I can tell, you’ve worked amazingly hard to get where you are today and no one handed you *anything*. You’re “lucky” insofar as you’re intelligent, talented and strong-willed. ‘Course, that is not the kind of luck that these assholes mean. I agree. Fuck ‘em.
By: Juniper Shoemaker on July 3, 2011
at 12:07 am