Three Miles - This American Life (Pt. 2)

This blog post covers part one of the This American Life episode "Three Miles."

Melanie did not pursue college, which was at first her dream. But many students from her high school did end up going to college--around two-thirds. Melanie did not end up with the life she wanted, though seeing the Fieldston campus did motivate her to try.

Part two of this story follows Jonathan, a student who has the complete opposite story as Melanie. Jonathan also went to University Heights and was in the exchange program with Fieldston. When he arrived on campus, he showed no emotion. He didn't believe that kind of life was for him and had no reaction. Jonathan also applied for the same scholarship as Melanie, and Jonathan won it though Melanie did not. When he was accepted to Wheaton College in Massachusetts, he felt no excitement. In fact, he didn't believe he was worthy of college, due to his environment growing up.

Jonathan had a girlfriend, Raquel, who graduated high school with him and is going to a different college. Over time, Jonathan started skipping classes and falling behind on his homework. He eventually dropped out. Raquel did finish her schooling, and is the only on of her friends who went to college who graduated. She and Jonathan broke up. Raquel is now a teacher, and Jonathan works in a gym.

What does this mean? Raquel, a minority having finished school, is now twice as more likely to move into the middle class than Jonathan and Melanie.

In order to achieve what Raquel's peers could not, she had to get past the fact that she did not get to enjoy all the luxuries those who attended Fieldston got. Other hardships faced was that she was the only black student in her classes, she saw her friends one by one dropping out of school, and her then boyfriend believed that he and other University High students are unworthy of college. She was at a clear disadvantage.

"How could you convince somebody that you deserve it when you don't even believe it yourself? It's a reoccurring theme in my life. I have to tell myself that I deserve this, because I work really hard for it." -- Raquel Hardy

In the end, Melanie did not achieve her goals. She now works at a supermarket and is embarrassed to tell people that. There could be people like Melanie working at grocery stores all across the country. Can anything be done to create less disadvantages for students?