Summary

“On Being Unchosen by the College of One’s Choice” reflects on a memorable moment in Didion’s life: the day she was rejected by Stanford University and cried for hours. Didion still has the copy of the rejection letter from Rixford K. Snyder at the university and invokes his name often, stating that eventually she realized not only that she was still intelligent and competent despite going to Berkeley instead of Stanford, but also that there would be plenty of Rixford K. Snyder’s in her life who would get in the way of one dream or another but none was worthy of immense regret. Didion says that hearing young people these days plan out every step of their lives induces pity in her. In her case, her parents...