Just Some Thoughts 002

1. Adulthood isn't an achievement or milestone, it's a responsibility. To think beyond myself. To pay attention to the world around me, both locally and globally, and continue looking no matter what I see. It's accepting that my being here will have an effect for better or for worse so I should try my best to make it for better. To realise that I'm not just an individual in the world, but a part of what makes the world and it would be better if I were consciously connecting to others who are also making the world, but better.

Also I should learn how to drive.

2. For a long time I've felt a weird discomfort when reading stories about people who defied stereotypes by achieving things that are statistically unlikey for someone of their demographic. I didn't know exactly why but it just felt... off. It wasn't until I came across this quote one time on twitter that felt like the biggest eureka moment (except I have a feeling a eureka moment is supposed to be an idea I came up with lol). I pressed like, probably retweeted, but when I tried to find it again, I couldn't. I scrolled down my timeline, searching using keywords I tried to remember, but couldn't. I've been trying for over a year. But I found it again, reading an article on respectable politics:

Uplifting stories that leave out structural barriers, let alone the need for political struggle to correct those barriers, can gloss over the enormous challenges the poor face in an era marked by downward mobility. (Fredrick C. Harris, "The Rise of Respectability Politics", Dissent Magazine)

I think we (I don't who "we" are...) have to move beyond celebrating exceptional cases, and moving towards addressing, organising, and changing the systems that creating the norms that the privileged and brilliant few break through.

While also still celebrating important achievements and milestones of individual cases?

3. There's a minimalist on YouTube who I found, Youheum, and I love putting her videos on in the background as my white noise. That's pretty antithetical who her lifestyle as someone who is mindful and actively chooses silence over background noise but hey, I bet she wouldn't judge me for my choices (she said so in a video). I like the idea of minimalism, at least how she talks about it. You can find her at: Heal Your Living.