i recently saw a clip about jfk jr that talked about how he failed the bar exam twice and how the headlines openly mocked him for it. it made me wonder whether he might have been happier pursuing something like acting rather than becoming a lawyer. sometimes i feel that his heart may not have been fully in the legal profession, which could explain why he struggled with the bar exam, although no one can really know.
more broadly, i often think about the kennedy men, especially the grandsons of joe and eose kennedy.. it seems like many of them have lived under enormous expectations from a very young age, particularly those named after their fathers such as john and maybe the disgrace, bobby jr.. ugh. i do think in john’s case, i think the public pressure was immense because after his father’s assassination, he became an american symbol before he was even old enough to choose his own path. every milestone in his life from graduating college to dating, even failing the bar exam has always intertwined with politics.
to me, it seemed to me that there was an assumption, both from the media and perhaps within the family, that he should eventually follow in his fathers footsteps and enter politics, even if that may not have been where his own interests truly lay. while some other members of the family including ones in this current generation like jack schlossberg is passionate about politics. i still find myself wondering how much of that is personal passion and how much comes from growing up with the weight of the kennedy name and the expectations attached to it?
i also wonder how things might have been different if jack and bobby had never been assassinated, would their sons have felt the same level of pressure to politics? or would having their father alive have given them more freedom to pursue careers and identities of their own? it’s impossible to know, but i can’t help wondering whether the expectations from both the media and the family would have been less overwhelming if their father had been their to shape their own legacies instead of the media proclaiming some of them as the heir of camelot.
as for john I really think he was so artsy and creative just like his mother and he would've thrived doing acting but especially just because that's his passion!! he wasn't passionate about law and that was evident. he was just on a conveyer belt of sorts driven by his family's unyielding need to do something 'great'
i recall a story when john was little and said he wanted to be a chef when he grew up and bobby didn't even want to entertain the idea. there was just a certain something a kennedy should be
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked
Luke 12:48
rose and joe raised their kids with that phrase to give them more ambition and a sense of needing to be purposeful and it never really died out
I think if bobby hadn't died there would still be that driving sense of needing to involve yourself in politics to give back but I'm not so sure about jack. both of them knew what it was like to not fully have your life in your own hands but jack especially was put on a conveyer belt and I don't know that he would've done the same to his own kids. he spoke about it here and did say he would encourage them to do something that gave a sense of purpose which really goes back to Luke 12:48
as for the media there's no telling but I feel like it would be less expectant had bobby and jack not been martyred. but unfortunately I just think if your name is "john f. kennedy jr" you really don't have much of a choice in what you're going to do with your life
kianamaiart
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
andulkaphoto
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gamechangershow