" A young woman forced to keep drunks supplied with beer and siblings with clean
underwear—instead of being allowed to pursue something higher —stores up great
reserves of vitality, a vitality never dreamed of by university students yawning over their
books. (...) The difference between the university
graduate and the autodidact lies not so much in the extent of knowledge as in the
extent of vitality and self-confidence. The elan with which Tereza flung herself into her
new Prague existence was both frenzied and precarious. She seemed to be expecting
someone to come up to her any day and say, What are you doing here? Go back where
you belong! "

― Milan Kundera , The Unbearable Lightness of Being