A young man is waiting outside the office of a professor.  He is nervous.  He can hear the conversation

You are here to enrich your knowledge and character.  If you fail you deserve to be expelled.  It's clear to me that you've lived in Egypt, that your parents speak Arabic at home and that you can read a book like "Fate of a Cockraoch".  If I allow you to take this class, I will simply be allowing to to narrowly escape failure.  You will never be able to truly know what's in store for you.

(Paralleled with my mother's dropping out of college for different reasons and Edward lane's decision to work at a printmaker instead of going to Cambridge).