#self authorship

Clarity Is the Silent Prerequisite

I didn’t grow up being told I could be anything. I grew up being told I had to be useful.

The message was simple and unromantic: You are not pretty enough for life to carry you. Learn something. Be competent. Know how to stand on your own.

It wasn’t kind. It wasn’t gentle. But it was clear.

There was no illusion that desire alone would open doors. No fantasy that confidence could replace skill. No suggestion that belief would override circumstance. You either developed something real, or you were left behind.

Today, the message is different — and strangely more confusing.

Everyone is told they are special. Everyone is told they can do anything. Everyone is told they are already enough, just as they are.

And yet, so many people feel lost.

Not because they lack opportunity, but because they lack orientation.

Clarity is the part no one talks about anymore.

You can prepare endlessly. You can study. You can accumulate degrees, credentials, titles, milestones. You can follow every rule and still end up somewhere that doesn’t feel like your life.

Because preparation without clarity is just motion. Achievement without direction is just weight.

And weight eventually exhausts you.

A generation raised on possibility was never taught how to ask a harder question:

Is this actually mine?

Instead, they were taught to chase images: • the image of success • the image of independence • the image of happiness • the image of being chosen

So people rush phases of life they haven’t inhabited yet: students desperate to be done with school, young adults desperate to arrive somewhere stable, relationships entered as exits rather than choices.

The urgency isn’t excitement. It’s escape.

And when arrival finally comes, the disappointment is sharp and quiet: I waited so long for this… why doesn’t it feel like I thought?

Because it was never you who chose the path. It was momentum. Imitation. Expectation. Fear of standing still while others moved.

We don’t transition through life anymore. We rush through it, afraid to be fully where we are.

A culture that worships outcomes forgets how to live inside process.

So people search, imitate, perform, and prepare — without ever stopping to notice whether the direction itself makes sense.

And when things don’t feel right, they assume something is wrong with them.

The truth is quieter.

Not everyone is meant for the same kind of life. Not everyone thrives the same way. Not everyone responds to words, encouragement, or slogans.

Some people need to see a life before they can follow it. Some need structure. Some need limits. Some need realism more than reassurance.

Telling everyone they can do anything doesn’t liberate them. It erases difference — and difference is where clarity lives.

Clarity is not optimism. It doesn’t promise ease or success or applause.

Clarity simply does this one essential thing: it tells you whether your effort belongs where you’re putting it.

And that is everything.

Because without clarity: • preparation becomes anxiety • achievement becomes hollow • freedom becomes overwhelming

With clarity: • limits become guides • difference becomes useful • effort finally makes sense

Clarity is the silent prerequisite that determines whether anything else has meaning.

Not beauty. Not talent. Not encouragement. Not belief.

Just knowing: This is mine to walk.

I really liked the idea of this project and was excited to get started, however when I found it hard to think of a topic that really interested me, it became difficult.  Normally this would not be an issue as I like a challenge, however I really hit a wall.  I decided to plough through and see if something would come of the work I was doing.  I'm interested in old objects and thought I could incorporate a typewriter into this module as I have never used on before.  

The typewriter was a big help as it allowed me to express text conversations through a different and contrasting way, however this was not enough to get me too excited.  I wanted to really emphasis how much poppycock people really say nowadays, probably without realising it.  After sitting in a coffee shop for an afternoon I picked up some good conversations and had real material to work with.  

Just as I thought I had no more avenues to go down and really feeling like I had hit the metaphorical brick wall rather hard, a conversation helped me get back onto my feet.  It was suggested I should think of the rubbish as important, and suddenly I was away.

I liked the idea of adding a sense of importance to the waffle that people were saying.  So I began to try to think of ways in which to portray and important text.  

Royal letters. Regal invites. Certificates. Official documents.

The New Statesman magazine published an article showing the winners of a competition for readers to send in modern-day proverbs or aphorisms and some were just so pointless and random that it seemed relevant to the random things I am collecting.

I am interested in people and the way they interact with each other, be it in person, via text messaging or phone calls.

To get my line of enquiry started I looked through the text messages on my phone for a day and categorised them very roughly into texts that were needed and ones that weren't. As I said this was very rough because of course the main reason for sending SMS messages is to adhere to social protocol and keep up relations with people.  

For one days messages between the hours of 00.19-19.19 I sent and received a total of 62 texts only 8% of which were worthwhile [again apart from the social context].  For another day the total text messages sent and received was 68 only 7% of which were 'needed'.