We are the lucky ones

A post to mark the end of a personal journey since I started writing here

I’ve been hesitant about publishing something like this for a very long time. Part of it is because of procrastination, but I’ve also felt increasingly conflicted about how much I should share about my life.

Still, I feel the need to write something, because a great deal of my life has been defined by the things that happened last year. And to not share at least some of that feels like carrying a weight around. But I’ll try to keep it short.

Purgatory

For the longest time, I was in a rush to prove myself. My sleep disorder took away many years of youth, and I would stir with resentment as I watched my peers move on to further stages of life. For most of us, the early 20s are inherently competitive and hectic. There's a pressure to have everything figured out - or at least paint that veneer.

I won't say that I have things fully figured out, but 2023 was the year where I was granted the opportunities and experiences I needed to mature. I finished school, got some decent work experience, met lots of interesting folk and invested in relationships with people I can trust. It's felt like an incredibly long journey, but if there's anything that I've learnt, it's that getting started really is the most difficult part. If you invest in doing the little things well, you’ll often be surprised at how far that momentum can carry you.

Content

Over the last year, I’m really grateful to have found so many interesting writers on Substack. Many of the things I’ve read have made my life feel richer, and I think it’s good proof that social media can be a net positive influence in your life if you curate it well. But I’ve since realized that consuming content - even of the best kind - can be an endless time sink. And since I’ve started full-time work, I no longer even try to keep up with new posts.

I think that ultimately, any kind of input should only be used as a means to improve your output in the world. You can read and research all you want, but there are some things you can only learn when you walk through the fire.

Agency

Which brings me to my final point. If you spend too much time listening to what the news and the loudest voices around have to say, you might start to believe that things are bound to get worse and nothing can be helped. And it would be all too easy to find proof to support that. But if anything, all of my experiences so far have proven that that doesn’t have to be true. And belief is a funny thing. Maybe it’s just my idealism speaking, but I truly believe that we are the lucky ones. We get to do things our grandparents could hardly dream of and draw on great bodies of knowledge from those who came before us. And even if none of those things were true, we - unlike our ancestors - can still act.

So, dear reader, I hope that you don’t lose sight of what you’re capable of. And may you live in interesting times.

-Emmanuel