Jill Lepore: belief

Transcript context

…Yes. We’d get pizza sometimes, and I had been to Friendly’s. And that was my experience of restaurants. I remember freshman year, people were like, “Let’s go out” and “We’re going to go get nachos down at Teele Square.” And I’m like, “What are you talking about? With what money?” We have a meal plan. I’m working three jobs to pay for my frickin’ meal plan. People had no idea about that. What’s difficult for undergraduates who are first-generation college students now — I don’t get that. I didn’t come from nothing. I don’t get that. I don’t mean to give myself some kind of street cred or something, but I do get having a sense that you don’t belong in a place. And there’s so many ways that elite institutions communicate to you that you don’t belong. And I’ve never really shed that. So when you were a secretary at Harvard Business School, what were you thinking? Was it like, “Hey, I can do this” or “I’m about to make my escape; I’m just putting up with this for now”?…

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