BlogHer - I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, but Doggone It, Obama Appointees Intimidate Me! - Comments

Love your analogy

Maria Niles — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:40:31 -0600

I have to make sure that I don't overeat on the theme of what could have been and what isn't, as that is a killer like all overeating will kill you in the end.

Beautifully put, Wilma. Thank you so much for your kind words and your thoughtful comment.

Lost comment

Maria Niles — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:38:47 -0600

Thanks for your comment, Lizzie - go Maroons!

I had a beautifully crafted ;) response composed earlier which was lost. Sigh.

But, I do remember saying that I loved my time at Chicago and wouldn't trade it for Harvard or any Ivy. It's just the name recognition thing I envy. Back home in California I got so tired of the blank stares. I saw a woman in a UofC tee shirt one time and almost tackled her. But, yes, thanks to one President-Elect Obama, Hyde Park in now part of the public consciousness. And I am delighted whenever I read or hear Obama mentioning that he hangs at some of the same places I frequented in my Hyde Park days. 53rd & Kimbark represent!

And now you've got me playing with Google maps street view visiting the old neighborhood :)

Snap.

Wilma Ham — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:16:04 -0600

Great indulging post :)

and I love your punch line I wouldn't trade my zig zag path for anything because my life is perfectly what it is supposed to be. Yours too ;) in one of the comments.

Nothing wrong with observing and relating it to how your own life is.
I too do indulge in how I feel about all the other successful people but then the trick is to make sure I 'snap out of it' and that I don't hang around in those feelings too long.
I have to make sure that I don't overeat on the theme of what could have been and what isn't, as that is a killer like all overeating will kill you in the end.

I too felt at some point that my life has gone by without achieving some goodies to be proud of and anybody else seemed to have become a winner.
But as you say, that wasn't actually being very honest with myself.
So far I did what I did and that was perfect.
I did do things of course AND yes I could do things differently if I choose a different intent.

Once I got to understand intent, I lived my life more purposeful and with more satisfying results.
Maybe the results were not even that different but I felt more powerful.

The beauty of life is, that every day is a new one and you can choose your life all over again.

Now the next thing to watch for is, 'what' am I choosing to be and what for?

However I have enough savviness NOT to go for imitating others, but look for my own desires and strengths.
What will make me a winner in my own eyes?

That will keep me busy and perfect for now.

Wilma Ham

www.wilmasblog.com

Rennaisance women unite!

Maria Niles — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:35:52 -0600

Well, I am flattered to share a brain with you :)

But, while I have a tiny bit of envy of those who always knew what they wanted to be when they grew up, stuck with it and are fabulously successful - I know many who followed that path and were met with disappointment and burnout. I wouldn't trade my zig zag path for anything because my life is perfectly what it is supposed to be. Yours too ;)

Nothing wrong with getting a little perspective from friends and blog readers. Sometimes they can help us see outside our blinders.

Chicago connections

LizzieH — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:45:38 -0600

Hi Maria,

I'm a UofC grad also - undergraduate class of '89 - but instead of feeling intimidated by all the talent-with-Chicago-connections that Obama is surrounding himself with, I am feeling newly proud to be a UofC alum! Back when I first left for college, people would constantly ask my mother why I was going so far away to go to a state school. They had never heard of the University of Chicago, but I can guarantee you they've heard of it now.

And what's with all the Ivy League/Harvard envy? Don't you know Harvard is just the University of Chicgo of the East Coast? ;)

--Liz

PS - did you see the 60 Minutes interview with the Obamas? I can't tell you how tickled I am that our next President used to live near a Harold's Chicken Shack!

I blog about creating a life worth living at: inventingmylife.blogspot.com

riding the "what have I done with my life" wave

Dharma — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:23:50 -0600

Seriously grrl, it's like you and I are sharing a brain. Well except for that part where you actually finished a graduate degree. In a twisted way this subject - what have I done to show for myself has been a recent theme on my blog. Trying not to wallow in what hasn't happened, I have resorted to asking my readership for ideas of how to get a life. So much more useful, no? No? Really? Well shoot, now I have to actually think for myself.

I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, but Doggone It, Obama Appointees Intimidate Me!

Maria Niles — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:12:49 -0600

As I watch President-Elect Barack Obama roll out his team with daily announcements the shallow side of me is not thinking about what role they will play in bringing about change or analyzing their previous policy positions and perspectives. No, that part of me is screaming, "good gravy, woman - how has your lazy self squandered your life so miserably?"

These people are smart, accomplished and intimidating as all get out. Seriously, the new administration is bringing out my inner Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" demons. When the pundits start waxing rhapsodic about how "youthful" some nominee is and they are the same age as me or younger and then lists their resume key highlights - pass the Haagen Dazs.

I feel like I should caption a picture of myself LolCats style with "Elitist - Ur Doin' it Wrong". Let's see, got a BA but not from an Ivy nor summa cum laude. I didn't even get my California college right forgoing Stanford and Berkeley for UCLA. Not as impressive unless you are a male basketball player. OK, moving on, I decided to get a Ph.D. then dropped out just short of writing my dissertation. So I'm almost a Dr. Yes, you're impressed now - almost Dr. Niles. But I did get it from the University of Chicago which has a slightly higher profile now outside of academic circles by virtue of Obama teaching there. Not studying - teaching. After he ran the law review at Harvard. Ivy League. More impressive. Then, since one master's wasn't enough to signal my devotion to the graduate student lifestyle, I got a second one. This time an MBA from another Midwestern Modest school - top ranked but not that you'd know it and not Ivy League. Not even from Kellogg which is the Midwestern MBA that gets props. Mine comes from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Ranked #1 or #2 off and on by Business Week and The Wall Street Journal but I guarantee you are not as impressed as if I had told you it was Wharton - like Ivanka Trump.

Yes, I am ridiculously over-educated. Yes, I have just annoyed you beyond belief for flaunting and then whining about such privilege. And yet those Obama appointees intimidate the crap out of me. (That's my fancy education in action in that sentence.) They are the glittering successful well-connected (Mary Mitchell at The Chicago Sun-Times calls them the "chic elite") wonks while I am a loser in a sea of 200,000 others.

Let's take White House Social Secretary to be, Desiree Rogers. Not only is she a stunning 49 going on 12 (the un-PC, beaten down by ageism and patriarchy version of me says that), but she is a Harvard MBA. President George W. Bush is a Harvard MBA, just sayin'. Not to mention:

Rogers will come to the White House from Allstate Financial, where she was hired last summer to create a social network of consumers and clients for the mammoth business. Prior to that, Rogers was the president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, a $2 billion utility that she had headed since 2004; she worked at the company starting in 1997 as its chief marketing officer. In the early '90s, she was director of the Illinois Lottery. She received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College, and her daughter is a student at Yale.

Yep, it's official. I hate her.

On a serious note, I'm with David Brooks of the New York Times:

This truly will be an administration that looks like America, or at least that slice of America that got double 800s on their SATs. Even more than past administrations, this will be a valedictocracy — rule by those who graduate first in their high school classes. If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.

And though I am on the one hand, pettily jealous of their talent and success, on the other hand, I am extremely pleased that the President-Elect is surrounding himself with people who are better than and smarter than I, even if I want to hide under the covers sometimes.

I am not the only one noticing those appointments:

Faye Anderson of Anderson@Large writes of White House Personnel Matters and asks "The Ones We've Been Waiting For?"

Economist Megan McArdle of The Atlantic writes:

Obama's got a much, much better economics team than Bush started out with.

Mel Weiss at The Lilith Blog is excited about Hillary Clinton joining the Obama team because, "the more aggressive, self-possessed, smarter-than-you-and-you-know-it women we can get back into the spotlight asap, the better."

Majorman works at the White House and is looking forward to working with Desiree Rogers.

Jill Tubman at Jack and Jill Politics introduces us to Desiree Rogers and Melody Barnes and writes:

If there’s one thing you can’t say about Barack Obama — when you add up Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Barnes and Rogers — you can’t say he’s afraid of a strong black woman!

Speaking of Valerie Jarrett, check out her BlogHer interview from the DNC. I met her briefly after Erin interviewed her and she is incredibly impressive. And intimidating in an "OMG, she's so impressive" sort of way. I'm not at all surprised Obama is bringing her counsel to the White House.

And a few BlogHers on intimidation:

Tech Babe is not intimidated by panel interviews

Not the Life I Ordered wishes she could "find a guy who is not intimidated by [her] vibrator" [Note: possibly NSFW]

Joy Kerr-Owens at Green Tea For My Soul is intimidated by applying to a Ph.D. program

BlogHer CE Maria Niles is not intimidated when she's running the show like at her own blog PopConsumer