I’m at a halfway point —

It’s warm here. And I am so lucky. They say “you live and you learn.” But maybe “I lived and you can learn.”

To who I was half a way ago,

You’re going to meet a group of people who are temporary, and that’s okay. Because not everyone’s story falls in line with yours forever. The things they did to you and the things they did for you — you’ll never forget. So you learn what you can and you thank them for the ride.

You’re going to hear the world crumble; it’s been crumbling this whole time — under hatred and passivity and greed. You’ll wonder how you didn’t notice before. But then again, bliss and ignorance are deafening and they won’t solve a thing. You’ve got to do something about it.

You’ll realize short term sacrifice is necessary. Because everything you do now shapes who you’ll be, and everything you do now can shape who others will be. You’re building up to the later. Because this is bigger than you.

You’re going to take pictures, and write papers, and code assignments, and some of them will be really good. But the most painful, tiresome, gratifying, worthwhile, precious thing you’ll ever get to work on — is you. Everything else is a ripple effect.

Don’t forget that.

Even now, you’re not sure exactly where you’re going. But you see something bright and something beautiful. It’s a ways away, but it’s over there…

And it’s where you’re headed.

“It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.”