276

Impossible? We’ve barely explored the realm of possibility as it is. How, then, can we speak so confidently about what we are and are not capable of?

And that’s assuming our calculus of what’s possible was correct to begin with.

275

You were meant for amazing things.

Within your life story, the line between unique and banal is but a matter of perspective.

If you try to conjure up all the things that make you seem the same as everyone else, you will find them, and if you try to conjure up all the things that differentiate you, you will find them as well. The truth is that while every part of our lives rhymes in some way with our predecessors and with the human condition, the entropy of our universe does not allow for the same exact series of events to happen in the same exact way in the same exact place; every interaction in this world and within the course of humanity is ever so slightly different, often incomprehensibly.

But lest we let this become a distraction. In either scenario, we still have a choice to make—to decide who we will and will not be. If it has been called upon us to do what has not been done before, then nothing stops us from taking that path less trodden. And if it has been called upon us to do what always has been done, then let us walk with everyone else.

274

Dissatisfied with your circumstances? Change them.

Can’t change them? Change your mind.

Can’t change your mind? Then your misery is no mystery.

273

Not enough time.

Do it anyway.

272

“Everything will be okay.”

Take all the liberty to assume this for yourself, but don’t have the audacity to tell this to other people if you have no real way of predicting the future, or, as it is most of the time, we don’t take the time to see our circumstances truthfully, as they are. Don’t put yourself in a position to have to apologize for disseminating false hope when things don’t actually turn out to be okay.

271

Mistakes—unforeseeable, unavoidable, and essential to the human condition.

Why then, are we angry? Or sorry? For doing what we were destined to do?

Understand where fate has led us, and understand that all that’s left is a choice—to do better, or to give up. When one is meaning, and the other is ceaseless misery, the choice is easy.

270

You don’t need a label, you don’t need an achievement, and you most certainly do not need the transient sense of pride that often comes with either.

You know what you need to do. You know what is right.

So just fucking do it.

269

We do this not only so that we can be ready, but also so that we will have the willpower to figure out what to do when we are not ready.

268

Are we being present? Or are we being ignorant?

Are we being mindful? Or are we overthinking?

There is a mistake lying around every corner, and there is often no way to tell.

And that is the point.

267

What drives me to do what I do day by day?

Because I said I would do it. And there is no greater shame than having to admit I couldn’t keep my own word, let alone someone else’s.