Congratulations!!

Proud of or Pleased for.

My husband, as we say in New England, is wicked smaht. He has passed his second semester in his masters program with straight A's. I am married to a man with a 4.0 GPA.

This is definitely a good thing on many levels: first of all, it makes all of those evenings where he came home, ate dinner and watched the "Daily Show" in 20 minutes ("Welcome to the Daily Show!"...ba-boop!...crunch..."I'm going to study.") worthwhile. Secondly, it increases the odds of scholarship funds. Lastly, it is fun and fantastic to see him excel at this.

When I graduated from law school, Mom was in the process of considering the phrase, "I'm proud of you." She disliked the way it seemed to co-opt the accomplishment of another person. By being "proud of" someone, it seemed like you had some share in their achievement. She especially found it odious when that other person had nothing whatsoever to do with the accomplishment or perhaps even had (either intentionally or ignorantly) impeded it. At that point, she started saying that she was "pleased for" anyone who had achieved something special.

So, I'm pleased for John. He's definitely done something here he can be proud of.

Posted: Wednesday - May 11, 2005 at 07:52 AM | |