A Life.

Yoko Shimizu Illustration for Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh’s The College of Chinese Wisdom US (2016) [Source]

I’m kind of amazed at how profoundly cynical this WSJ essay is:

When students arrive at college these days, they hear a familiar mantra about the purpose of higher education: Find yourself. Use these four years to discover who you are. Learn flamenco dancing or ceramics, start a composting project, write for the student newspaper or delve into 19th-century English poetry. Self-discovery, they are told, is the road to adulthood.

So why is it that so many students feel such anxiety? On campus, we hear the same complaint again and again: “I’ve done lots of extracurriculars. I’ve taken a variety of courses. Why can’t I figure out who I am and what I want to do?”

Our answer: Read Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi and other Chinese thinkers who lived more than 2,000 years ago. Recognize that the contemporary Western emphasis on self-discovery and self-acceptance has led you astray.

Instead of struggling to be authentic, Confucius proposed another approach: “as if” rituals, that is, rituals meant to break us out of our own reality for a moment. These rituals are the very opposite of authenticity—and that’s what makes them work. We break from who we are when we note the unproductive patterns we’ve fallen into and actively work to shift them—“as if” we were different people in that moment.

Geology, Mount Holyoke College

person 1: (does/says self-destructive thing) lmao

person 2: No!!!!! NNO no No No!!!!

(the very next day)

person 2: (does/says self-destructive thing) lmao

person 1: (does/says self-destructive thing) lmao

person 2: No!!!!! NNO no No No!!!!

(the very next day)

person 2: (does/says self-destructive thing) lmao