Not everyone who helps me is my friend, or even an acquaintance.
The principle of the LOR is for a professional to assess your ability to be a professional and capable pharmacy student. Think of it as a professional statement. You provide the personal statement that describes your personal attributes that will allow you to succeed in pharmacy school and professors/pharmacists/bosses provide the professional statement to attest for your professional attributes that will allow you to be a capable professional pharmacist. To summarize, the point of LORs aren't to show how close you are to a professional friend-wise, it's to have another professional rate you professionally. I have used the word professional a lot since that is the emphasis I'm trying to get across to you. My LOR writers know me well professionally, but I don't consider them my friends.😉
Dispite the way I exaggerated things, and called LORs "stupid,"
I had two main points:
I) Regardless of what a LOR is
for, what it
does is give the student an opportunity to abuse social connections (people who
may or
may not be considered "friends," or "family," but are in some way allies willing to exaggerate the students attributes for them). Example: some student's father is friends with a pharmacist, who purposely exaggerates how great his friends son is. They might not even be friends of a family member.
BUT, the person didn't
need to be a "friend" or a "family member" to make stuff up for someone else. They may not give a crap about the person, they may likely be some non-friend associate getting something else in return.
II) A friend is anyone who 1) knows, 2) trusts, and 3) likes you. Or a friend is someone who is friendly towards you, one that helps you. (Note:I try to befriend most people.) They could be someone to give an objective rating, or they could be someone to give an exaggerated rating. Anyone that helps you because they know you and are kind enough is, by many definitions, a friend. That was my point. That, and that LOR give students an opportunity to abuse social contacts.
But, thanks for humiliating me in public and that smug emoticon at the end. I definitely needed chastising, repetitive, and demeaning phrases like "[...]think about it[...]to summarize[...]I have used the word professional a lot[...]I'm trying to get across to you[...]
😉 " to understand what a LOR was really for.
I know the honest existential reason for LORs, I also hold the opinion that they give opportunities to be dishonest, or abuse, or simply show-off social connections.
Professional(s/ism):
I believe good professionals are kind professionals regardless of their career. They have good morals and ethics, and they genuinely care about people, all people. Great professionals sometimes sacrifice hard work and things of monetary value just so they can better serve their community; they are friendly, responsible, altruistic, & kind.
The general concept of a "professional" as someone who has extensive experience, looks serious, acts serious, is well-groomed, objective, and gets paid for what he does is what is left over from an earlier concept that once included other values(responsibility to the community, altruism, etc.).
I'm sure you'll make a great "professional," but your way of correcting me and helping to explain what a LOR is was far from kind, considerate, or gentle. You didn't even try to understand what I may have meant.
