Adolescent Opinion

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Adolescent Opinion

January 2, 2015 by kmabarrett

I am glad if I have been a comfort to you and mama and only wish that I had also been a comfort to my self; but I haven’t. I have lived 19 years yet it seems to me that I have wasted them. I amount to very little more than when I was a baby. Even in games I have never been a great success. I am fare in every thing but good in nothing. It seems to me that for a person to amount to some thing they should be good at least in one thing. Other boys appear to make successes but though [I] want to I don’t succeed. Perhaps it is just that I lack that small fraction of courage, will power, or what ever it is which makes them succeed. Or perhaps I don’t fail any worse than any one else only my jealousy makes me think I do. Still when I look at even my class mates I don’t feel that sense of superiority which it seems to me should be felt by a (not great) but by a successful man. I some times fear that I am one of these darned dreamers with a willing spirit but a weak flesh a man who is always going to succeed but who never does. Should I be such a one it would have been far more merciful had I died ten years ago for I at least can imaging no more infernal hell than to be forced to live — a failure.

— Cadet George S. Patton, Jr.
From a letter to his father, dated 12 November 1904
Originally found in the book: “The Patton Papers“
Compiled and Edited by: Martin Blumenson

[How critical youth can be of itself… It should be noted that General George S. Patton, Jr. ended up being one of the most accomplished American combat generals of World War II. — kmab]

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On This Day In:
2021	More New Year’s Exercises
	7 Done, 12 Down
2021	Another Public Service Message
	Greetin’ The Sun
2020	From The Mountains To The Shores
2019	Watering The Trees And Seeds
	1221
2018	Take Care Of Me…
2017	Make Some Difference
2016	Still 99%
2015	Adolescent Opinion
2014	In A Big World
2013	Vacancy For God
2012	Sweat Equity
	Try It… You’ll Like It
2011	Still Incomplete
2010	Happy New Year – 2010

Posted in Leadership, My Journal, Quotes | Tagged Cadet George S. Patton Jr., Martin Blumenson, My Journal, On Being Successful, On Failure, On Military Leadership, Quotes, The Patton Papers | 4 Comments

4 Responses

on February 25, 2015 at 10:13 am | Reply russtowne

Wow. Thank you for this fascinating glimpse into the young mind and spirit of the man.
- on February 25, 2015 at 11:00 am | Reply kmabarrett
  
  Hi Russ,
  As always, thanks for the visit and the comment.
  
  I’m just wondering… What made you go back to January posts? I’m asking because I started adding the “On This Day” information some time back, but I’ve found very few people seem to use it (the links). I have a couple of older posts which uniquely provide specific data (a review of a TV series and some Latin quotes) – and they are frequently “hit”, but I see no general use of the links to older posts. (Just curious…)
  
  As to your specific comment, I too found the quote fascinating (well, almost humorous) because I often forget the “pressure” of self-belief in the young. I read many blogs posts where young folks are complaining how much their peers are ahead of them (or doing “better” at some specific thing, than they are). Be it money, fame, career or family, there seems to be the keeping up with the Joneses mentality among the young who expect themselves to excel. I don’t know if they ultimately come to judge their lives as failures as Patton was ready to do. It just seems a shame to be so impatient for success when you’ve hardly lived long enough to have had many opportunities for success. After all, we can’t all be Alexander the Great, who became king as a teenager and had conquered the “known” world by his mid-20’s.
  
  Again, thanks for the visit and comment!
on January 4, 2015 at 9:28 am | Reply Ahmed

I love this piece. I used to go through the same feelings but no more as i’m learning to accept my abilities as well as skills and work on them better than nagging.
- on January 4, 2015 at 8:31 pm | Reply kmabarrett
  
  Salaam Alecome,
  You are more mature than me, then. I will be 60 this year and I still have these feelings. All I have learned is that it is easier to laugh at that side of me.
  
  Thank you for the visits and the comments! 🙂