series of unfortunate events really said: sometimes adults are wrong. sometimes they do not have your best interests at heart. sometimes the authority figures you’ve been told to trust are evil, and sometimes they’re just plain idiotic. often, they won’t listen to you, even when you are right. they will misinterpret things you say and belittle your interests and then expect you to take it lying down. sometimes you will know better than they do and there will be very little you can do to change their mind. despite all this, there is good in the world and it will be okay. being young does not mean you are worthless.

one of the biggest things I can advocate for (in academia, but also just in life) is to build credibility with yourself. It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking of yourself as someone who does things last minute or who struggles to start tasks. people will tell you that you just need to build different habits, but I know for me at least the idea of ‘habit’ is sort of abstract and dehumanizing. Credibility is more like ‘I’ve done this before, so I know I can do it, and more importantly I trust myself to do it’. you set an assignment goal for the day and you meet it, and then you feel stronger setting one the next day. You establish a relationship with yourself that’s built on confidence and trust. That in turn starts to erode the barrier of insecurity and perfectionism and makes it easier to start and finish tasks. reframing the narrative as a process of building credibility makes it easier to celebrate each step and recognize how strong your relationship with yourself can become

ever since i learned abt the concept of networking i knew i was going to have to do everything alone and do it the hard way

i believe i can do everything in this life except feign interest and suck up to people