All of the characters of this book have been raised in a society of inner rings. 
Both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley were interested in women who were “below their society”.  It is interesting that Mr. Bingley was less affected than Mr. Darcy.  Mr. Darcy had more struggles with the hierarchies of his society than Mr. Bingley.   Yet Mr. Darcy is usually listed as the ideal man (see The Awakening of Miss Prim), not Mr. Bingley.  What makes Mr. Darcy the more desirable of the men in Pride and Prejudice?    Is it because of his choices at the end, where he helps in a crisis, or that he moves from a system of hierarchy to a circle of influence?  We see through the novel that he has influence over others based on his position of birth, along with his friendship with Mr. Bingley.  At the end of the novel, he was able to influence others around him with clarity and energy in a way that helped remedy the Bennetts’ problems.  Or is it some other reason that Mr. Darcy captures more hearts than Mr. Bingley?

As we pursue our path or goals, sometimes we run into walls or chasms, or roadblocks.  The Student Whisper calls them chasms, but sometimes I feel like I have run into walls (running term).  Regardless of what you call it there is always the question of ‘is it the right path if I run into so many problems’?  During this time of pondering, it’s a great time to look for solutions, missing skills, recast vision, etc.  But what if the right thing to do is quit?
Seth Godin’s book ‘The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)’ might help.   I don’t know that I agree with all that he says, but I do like how he explains how to focus on things when things get tough.  He asks you to label whether what you are experiencing is a cliff, dead-end or dip.   The dip is explained as that place where you have to slog through to move to mastery.  You are putting in effort, but the results are not there or are dipping.  A very interesting insight.  The book will help you look at your journey in a new way as you evaluate your goals.  The author will also show you when and why it’s a good time to quit instead of persevering.     His ideas go well with my books on the Hero Cycle.  I want to attempt it all and at once, but that is just not possible.  As much as I would like to do it all, I have limits and knowing what those limits are is important as I decide what I want to do with my time.   Sometimes the best thing is to limit what I am doing so that I can put in the energy that is needed for the goal I have.  It is always so hard to say no to a good thing but much easier if I label what the best things are that I would like to do. 

 
Interesting idea that if you use your powers or gifts to help yourself it changes you but if you share them you are changed in a different way.  Using your powers or gifts for yourself you become a selfish and angry person that destroys things.  We seem to want to create superheroes in our life to save the day.  Is that the best way?  Brandon Sanderson shows a very different way of looking at those with unhuman amounts of power.  Following the idea that power corrupts.  In this particular story a boy who was filled with desires for revenge uses all his energy to learn about those that have unhuman powers (named Epics).  He uses his knowledge to seek revenge for the death of his father.  As he bands with a group that work to kill off the epics, he misses that there are epics among him.   He learns that there is a ‘humanness’ in each of those with powers too.  So what is more important?  Destroying all that use their powers incorrectly, or help creating a better place to live?  Does David find a better goal than just revenge?
 
Then more importantly, what am I to learn about human nature from this book?  
Do I look to other people to create a society?  How am I involved in making my community a better place?  Do I understand where I am flawed and what I need to do?

​I have been reflecting about what I thought college would be like when I was young compared to what I experienced. What I thought was all fuzzy to me now, but I did think that there would be more group discussions and class discussions. What I found was those group projects were one or two people doing most of the work individually and then others getting grades they did not earn because you cared more. I knew that college would require reading and assignments, but I had this image of more group discussion. That did not happen to me. I spent a lot of time alone working, trying to balance work and school. Prepare lab reports, running tests based on those reports that I had no idea why I needed to do the experiment or what I was to gain from it. As a young person, I had an image of having discussions in class and plenty of reading assignments. I remember watching the TV show The Paper Chase. That definitely swayed my thinking.
In the book “A Thomas Jefferson Education” by Oliver DeMille, it shares a list of essential skills from Harvard School of Law:

1.  The ability to define problems without guides.
2. The ability to ask hard questions which challenge prevailing assumptions.
3. The ability to quickly assimilate needed data from masses of irrelevant information.
4. The ability to work in teams without guidance.
5. The ability to work absolutely alone.
6. The ability to persuade others that your course is the right one.
7. The ability to conceptualize and reorganize information into a new pattern.
8. The ability to discuss ideas with an eye toward application.
9. The ability to think inductively, deductively and dialectically.

 
As I compare the above list with my experience, I think I missed out of several of these skills. I think that I was able to accomplish #3,4, 5, & 8. #2 would put your grade in jeopardy. #6 would be true but the right one was whatever the professors’ thought was true.  New patterns (#7) were challenging the system and discouraged. I still feel that I am lacking an education, but I have several pieces of paper that say I am educated.
I started homeschooling with my eldest child during his kindergarten years due to some personal struggles he was experiencing. I was given the first edition of the A Thomas Jefferson Education book to read.  I read it and put it on the shelf.  I had no idea how to deal with it.  I didn’t have an education like that at all.  I was introduced to the TJE philosophy several more times before I decided to try parts of it.  I started reading the books in the back.  Finding others to discuss the books with was much harder to do.  I reached out to some online groups to help me out and then attended a seminar put on by Aneladee Milne who was with LEMI (Leadership Education Mentoring Institute) at the time.  I had some life-changing experiences and fumbled my way through implementing this in my own home.  I changed so much about who I was because of this book.  I renegotiated my core phase and started to get to know myself in new ways. One of the ways that I have changed is that I like Wythe skills better. Harvard skills are good too, but I think if I can work to achieve the Wythe skills I will have achieved an education.
  Wythe Skills:

1.  The ability to understand human nature and lead accordingly.
2. The ability to identify needed personal traits and turn them into habits.
3. The ability to establish, maintain and improve lasting relationships.
4. The ability to keep one’s life in proper balance.
5. The ability to discern truth and error regardless of the source, or the delivery.
6. The ability to discern true from right.
7. The ability and discipline to do right.
8. The ability and discipline to constantly improve.

Achieving both sets of skills, that would be pretty awesome. 

As I have been trying to think about this book and what I have learned from it, I have been wondering about what the book is about.  I have now read the book twice.  Is this book about education or romance? Is this an incomplete hero cycle?  Did the plot change from education to romance or is there more to it?  Is this a tragedy because Miss Prim does not marry the unnamed male lead?
I read the book, so now what?  What did I learn from reading this?  In order to help me figure out what I wanted to focus on, I reviewed my notes and then focused on the title.  What does awakening mean?  The Britannica Dictionary lists these definitions: to stop sleeping; to become aware of something.   I believe the writer is using the idea of becoming aware of something.  Where do I see an awakening?
At the beginning of the book, Miss Prim is hurriedly walking through San Ireneo de Arnois where she does not notice the pretty shops.  She is already identifying herself as different from others and feeling that she was born at the wrong time and place.  
The book ends with Miss Prim is in Italy talking to the hotel receptionist requesting a check out.  The receptionist asks if she has received bad news, Miss Prim states: “Actually”, said Miss Prim, eyes shining, picturing a door being closed with infinite patience, “it’s good news.  Extraordinary news, I’d say.”  She sighed euphorically.  “It’s strange and wonderful news.”….an hour later, she [the receptionist] watched the beautiful, graceful woman walk out of the hotel toward the waiting taxi with her chin held high and a gentle smile on her lips.”
As I reflect on the word awaken and apply it to my experiences, I reviewed what I would have called an “awakening experience”.   I have had only a couple of them, but I was changed by them.  I started to do things differently and seek different ideas.  Therefore, on my second read I was looking for something that might be similar between my experience and Miss Prim’s experience.   The only place that I identified was the last page of the book.  She has ‘shining eyes’ and is excited about something.  The receptionist describes her as beautiful and graceful with her head up and a smile on her face.  That is the first time I remember hearing any of these words applied to Miss Prim.  To me that is an awakening experience.  Everything else in the book was just showing you the path it took for her to travel before she “awakened”.    You are left to wonder what she is planning to do so you can’t tell if the story is a comedy (happy ending) or tragedy (taking the path of mediocracy, quitting, or death and sadness). 
To me the whole book is about the journey she had to travel before she found her purpose.  I remember my own experiences.  I had goals and was learning.  I was growing and striving to reach my goals.  At that awakening experience though I found my goals needed to be changed.  However, those goals had led me to the point that I had enough information to see that I needed to make a change to my goals.  Each step on the path was needed to help reveal what could be.  I think Miss Prim was having those same experiences.  As she learned about education and relationships (personal, mentored, and romantic) she was getting ready for that awakening that she didn’t know she needed.  She thought she was awake but found out that she was not seeing things as clearly as she needed to.
I think there are a lot of interesting quotes and ideas expressed in the book that really get you thinking, which is what she did in Italy.  As she processed those ideas and pondered on what to do, when an opportunity presented itself (the letter), the puzzle pieces aligned, and she could now see the picture and direction of where to go.   This fulfilled the epigraph in the book: “They think that they regret the past, when they are but longing after the future (John Henry Newman).”  If all goes well Miss Prim will be entering the future ready for the next step of her progression.   She has awakened to new possibilities.    What those possibilities are we are left to imagine for ourselves.  The real question is what will we do?  Will be look to the past with regret or move to the future and act on the ideas we have?