The following is a re-post of something I wrote a few days ago. If you see the post three times with minor variations, I’m sorry, the older posts are not visible to me and blocked for editing or re-posting by what looks like a spam filter gone rogue.

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Dear kylinc,

you’re welcome! But please excuse that I’ll go at it again, because I want to make sure to convey the message properly. I sometimes struggle with that, so let’s try a quote, from the ESA’s beautiful short film “Ambition”, said to a pupil who was doing a test in a science-fiction simulator:

Nothing has changed. We fall, we pick ourselves up again. And we adapt.

I was watching you earlier; you actually did everything right.

*I* destroyed your rock. I needed to see how you would react.

You could watch it on YouTube (link removed; please search online for ESA Ambition the Film), it’s less than seven minutes long and I think it’s quite on-topic here. To be honest, I think you should watch it, because from what you’ve said, I’m not sure you would pass the test shown in this little story. There was never a way to pass the first time; the only way to pass was to fail, then to try again, to question and struggle, to remain open – to have ambition.

So many people focus so much on what people do, and so little on the reasons why they do it. There is an endless supply of stories how people do the things that look right, but for the wrong reasons, or do things that look insane, but for good reasons and with great results. So:

Why are you studying?

Is it out of fear of failure, anxiety? Because you feel you owe it to those who expect it of you? Or is it your curiosity driving you, your sense of self, your ambition, your passions? Will you walk on through the storms and fires of life when they try to block your way?

When you talk to friends about your studies, what is that like? Is it a story of timetables and grades, or a story of challenge and ambition?