My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions.
I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the transition from academic life to real-world experiences, emphasizing the importance of learning and personal perspective.
Maya Lin's quote captures the feeling of disconnection that often accompanies the completion of education, particularly graduate school. It suggests that the true value lies not in the formal credentials or titles earned, but in the knowledge gained and the way individuals choose to interpret and apply that knowledge in their lives. This perspective highlights the significance of critical thinking and personal growth beyond academic institutions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, one might use this quote to inspire students about the importance of lifelong learning.
More from Maya Lin
All quotes βI try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.
How we are using up our home, how we are living and polluting the planet is frightening. It was evident when I was a child. It's more evident now.
Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field.
A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time.
When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business.
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I think the most important thing we can teach our kids for their long-term health and happiness is how to cook.
I do think that a minister who can preach a sermon without addressing sinners does not know how to preach.
No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.
To instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests and duties, as men and citizens...this brings us to the point at which are to commence the higher branches of education . . . . To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them the precepts of virtue and order.
I believe that no matter what you do in life, if you learn the basics through theater, it will help you in everything else - problem solving, communication, discipline, all of that stuff.
Let us treat them [children], therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them.