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“I grew up in an environment where I was made to feel that if I got a single B+ on a report card nothing good would happen in my life because no colleges would accept me and then I would never get a FAANG job and I would die alone.” Felt this so hard as a person whose parents also grew up poor in 1970s China and moved literally halfway across the world to Canada, LOL. This piece was quite reassuring and for that I thank you. :)
"Something I wish someone had told me as a kid is that the only real “rule” for work is that you have to be able pay your rent and not hurt anyone and not break any laws. And within those confines you can do literally anything, hopefully something you find personally fulfilling."
What a good paragraph. thank you for describing what work is in the most make-sense words :).
Indeed. Conventions make people feel safe because they provide a feeling of a "known path" and a "known outcome". As you say, this has a purpose. But at the same time, even those paths and outcomes are not assured. One should rather see them as options that you can use to orient your life and progress in a particular way, if you see the need, or paths you might even need to take to get to a certain place. While it is true that some people don't respect reality enough to recognize that there is such a thing as prerequisites, that there are such things as priorities, we can also take a too narrow view of life. We fail to understand that there is no substitute for prudence, that life is messy, that we get lost, that there is such a thing as a vocation, a calling. Rather than viewing life and the world as a closed system, we should see it as a city on a frontier. There are all sorts of ways to attain the good, things that haven't been done before, opportunities to expand on and develop the rich inheritance bequeathed to us by our ancestors.
Ava, can you recommend biographical books about/by such rebels that you've really enjoyed and were moved by?
“I grew up in an environment where I was made to feel that if I got a single B+ on a report card nothing good would happen in my life because no colleges would accept me and then I would never get a FAANG job and I would die alone.” Felt this so hard as a person whose parents also grew up poor in 1970s China and moved literally halfway across the world to Canada, LOL. This piece was quite reassuring and for that I thank you. :)
do weird lives FEEL weird or just LOOK weird from the outside?
this actually gave me reassurance, thank you 💌
"Something I wish someone had told me as a kid is that the only real “rule” for work is that you have to be able pay your rent and not hurt anyone and not break any laws. And within those confines you can do literally anything, hopefully something you find personally fulfilling."
What a good paragraph. thank you for describing what work is in the most make-sense words :).
Indeed. Conventions make people feel safe because they provide a feeling of a "known path" and a "known outcome". As you say, this has a purpose. But at the same time, even those paths and outcomes are not assured. One should rather see them as options that you can use to orient your life and progress in a particular way, if you see the need, or paths you might even need to take to get to a certain place. While it is true that some people don't respect reality enough to recognize that there is such a thing as prerequisites, that there are such things as priorities, we can also take a too narrow view of life. We fail to understand that there is no substitute for prudence, that life is messy, that we get lost, that there is such a thing as a vocation, a calling. Rather than viewing life and the world as a closed system, we should see it as a city on a frontier. There are all sorts of ways to attain the good, things that haven't been done before, opportunities to expand on and develop the rich inheritance bequeathed to us by our ancestors.
aww thank you!!! this post is so comforting
what a comforting read! ((even tho my brain tells me my life is weirder than everyone else’s))
This is lovely because what makes life interesting is how weird it can be. I always appreciate your words.
needed! ty
Well said
This is so good, and that picture captures the chaos of life perfectly.
tysm 🤧 i love this, ava 💞
💙♾️
Please write books. You have it.
How are we all living such similar yet different lives 😭 Ty for this! 💗