Vesper Talks to Girls

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Laura A. Knott. Vesper Talks to Girls

Vesper Talks to Girls

Table of Contents

I. NEW STARTS IN LIFE

II. SCHOOL FRIENDSHIPS

III. THE ART OF LIVING WITH OTHERS

IV. ENDURING HARDNESS[2]

V. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE

VI. THE USES OF TROUBLE

VII. SCHOOL SPIRIT

VIII. MAKING THE BEST OF THINGS

IX. CONFLICTING LOYALTIES

X. THE VALUE OF DISCIPLINE

XI. THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE

XII. THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN

XIII. SOURCES OF HAPPINESS

XIV. AFTER GRADUATION

Отрывок из книги

Laura A. Knott

Published by Good Press, 2019

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In going away to school among strangers, perhaps the most coveted opportunity you have is the privilege of taking only your best self with you. When we live and work with the same people day after day and month after month, they often get so used to us that they do not recognize the springing-up of new desires within us and the putting-forth of new effort, but remember only the faults and failings of the past. When we go away among those who do not know us, however, our shortcomings will never be discovered unless they manifest themselves anew. Have you made mistakes in the past? Have you blundered and have you failed, not once, but over and over again? Have you been selfish and inconsiderate of the rights of others? Let no one guess from your conduct now that such has ever been the case. Have you been indolent, wasting your time, and placing too high a value upon things not worth while? Among strangers these faults may be buried, never to come to life again. You will be judged by what you are, not by what you have been.

It is well to cultivate the habit of mind which lets the dead past bury its dead. This was St. Paul’s attitude toward the things of the past. “Forgetting the things which are behind, I press forward.” There are, of course, many memories of the past that one would never wish to forget, memories of uplifting associations and of victories over weaknesses that give courage and strength for the future. Along with these, however, there are memories of mistakes and failures now irremediable but which, though they cannot be effaced, can, in a measure, be atoned for by the future. Constantly to look backward with pain and regret only paralyzes one’s energy. The fact that much is expected of you for the future should put you on your mettle and call forth your highest powers.

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