Thoughts

Book Love from PBS via the Great American Read

Book Love from PBS via the Great American Read

INDIA UPDATE No 1: taking therapy for the very first time. • Coming back to India this second time means so much more, for me and the future of The Artidote community. I realized that if I wanted to lead a community based on empathy and self-awareness while prioritizing our mental health, that I needed to lead by example. So this time around I’m taking therapy. For the first time ever in my life. I keep telling Artidotees and even my close friends to seek professional mental health support when needed, but I’ve never even done it myself… So I’m writing this message minutes away from my first session. The wonderful people at @trijog are allowing me to take this opportunity so that I may not only come out understanding myself better but also (hopefully) becoming a better, useful human resource for all of you. The @under25official team are helping me create content around these sessions. I’ll keep you updated along the process about my fears, inhibitions, questions and discoveries ❤️

Look, a romantic wishlist is a nice thought, but it’s also creepy and unfair. It’s setting up an impossible monstrosity of expectations and you’ll be disappointed for no other reason than you played yourself.

I don’t mean lowering your standards. I mean setting real ones, for actual people who exist. For people who are just people and not a customized Frankenstein creature.

The person you’ll end up with is going to be their own person with their own hopes, dreams, goals, anxieties, and weird little habits. They’re not a checklist trophy that will meet your every size or quota.

They’re going to be way different and in fact way more interesting than the stitched up hologram made from half-baked movie cliches and choir-preaching memes.

Relationships are about compromise. Not compromising yourself, no. But about two weird people making it work. It’s a wild mix of chemistry, compatibility, non-negotiables, history and trauma, highs and lows, disagreements and pushback and feedback, augmenting goals, and lifelong change.

“Get you a guy/girl who” only works if you see yourself as a main character-savior-hero and you see others as a secondary prop to fulfill your romantic comedy narrative. In that case, you have other issues and you can wait.

And waiting in the meantime is a really good time for growth, for self-discovery, and for becoming the kind of person you never knew you were looking for. Singleness, really, isn’t waiting. It’s being.

(By Keigo)