I am grateful for my friends who do not judge me. It took me the better part of a lifetime to realize that true friends don’t judge and don’t offer advice. I had to cut a lot of people loose and kick many to the curb, but I am finally free to pursue genuine, honest relationships with others and experience undistorted emotions connected to people. Specifically, I had to let go of impressions foisted on me by ignorant and unwise “elders” who knew far too little about life and the world to give “advice.” And make no mistake: advice is simply judgment and those who offer it seek power over the ones they long to advise.
I am grateful that I largely depoliticized my life after the farce the DNC pulled on Bernie Sanders in 2016. I am grateful that I had the wisdom to understand on what side my bread was buttered and that the current Dems are just a lite version of the GOP. Progressive populism will become the future of the American left, but that’s no longer my concern. I will not invest my emotions in a corrupt system any longer.
I am grateful that I chose to pursue higher education at any cost. In my mind are multiple frameworks that serve as scaffolding for my experiences. These intellectual structures have allowed me to pull myself out of depression, anxiety, and self-loathing by helping to place experiences, emotions, and ideas into a broader context that extends beyond myself. I am now honest with myself and others. Subsequently, my writing has improved drastically and my essays are being bought by professional publications.
I am grateful to have left academia as a profession. It’s a dying industry full of weak minds, weak wills, and weak spines. The kids are not alright, and neither are the administrators.
I am grateful for my readers. You folks rock.
My Job Is Scaring You 