Striving

I’ve always been struck by Tracy Flick, from the 1999 film Election. Portrayed by a ferociously perky, blonde-bobbed Reese Witherspoon, Flick is the paradigmatic striver – she will stop at nothing to be successful. She is a walking résumé-padding exercise, a living, breathing college application. She has to have the very best grades, the extracurriculars and, as the title suggests, the student-body presidency. She eventually ends up at Georgetown. It was never really clear to me why I loved Flick so much – and not just loved, but really related to her. I was not a striver myself. I was crushed when I didn’t end up at Harvard, a school I had made no effort whatsoever to get in to. I hadn’t so much as submitted an application.