Two letters: hope and worry

Positive letter:

Dear Mr. Park:

You showed how all the dots connect together, and then where all the lines lead to. You showed how relevant everything is, and just how much there is to learn out there. I may have been born into a poor family and lived most of my formative years as an at-risk youth, but now I am about to graduate from Caltech with a Ph. D. in physics and go into the warmhole research program by NASA that was announced worldwide on the news. All of this is because you were the first to show faith in me. I would not be where I am today without you.

Negative letter:

Dear Mr. Park:

Why did you not tell me that I should just give up? Why did you have to encourage my overzealous parents, and then play up my hopes, too? Do you not realize how much the world changed? The tech industry is not lucrative anymore, and I am collecting unemployment while my "dumbass" friend squeezed her way into public service and probably will not retire for the next 80 years.


I tend to emphasize, among other things, relevancy and motivation. Indeed, while the school system is designed to be flexible, willing individuals must find the drive to put in extra work by themselves.

Also, one of my biggest fears is to see my students suffer because of my outdated or irrelevant career advice, hence the second kind of letter. I also hate to see students give into despair.