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Advice For Young People Who Feel Pressure to Seem “Humbled”
And why it’s okay to be happy about success and pancakes
The best part of writing a newsletter are the emails I get in return. Recently, Calvin University’s student body president, Claire Murashima, responded to my grumblings about inaccurate usage of the word “humbled.” She shared this extremely comprehensive essay from a few years ago, in which the wonderful writer Carina Chocano explains the word’s origins and theorizes on why successful people use it incorrectly, insisting they are “humbled” by their achievements, rather than remotely pleased with themselves:
It’s pro forma — possibly even mandatory — for politicians, athletes, celebrities and other public figures to be vocally and vigorously humbled by every honor awarded, prize won, job offered, record broken, pound lost, shout-out received, “like” copped and thumb upped. There’s a level on which this is reasonable. It’s not the safest time to be a public figure. We’ve reached the point where we run the risk of coming across as monstrously arrogant if we’re insufficiently humbled by even the smallest accomplishment. Voters, fans, followers, whatever energetic mob lifted you to your present position: These people can transform into nasty trolls at even the slightest hint of entitlement on your part, unleashing every kind of…
