Substance

It is, my dear, about moving through the world and acquiring weight. Substance. Solid bones that displace the atoms around you. An opacity that firmly resists anything moving straight through it. A heaviness as the soles of your feet nestle into the Earth. The slow-blinking self breathes out and settles into the space it inhabits.

Meaning Makers

Right on cue, the wisps hiding in the garden coyly emerged and spiralled into the dimming light. They caught in the edges of her sight and stirred her to her feet. It is time it is time it is time the air whispered. 

Death

One day I will die. As will we all. What will matter as I lie on my death bed and the truth sinks in – the finality of the end of my existence, the gnawing realization that my life will flicker, grow still, and cease? We, I, self, mind, consciousness, is-ness, will be no longer. Can we even comprehend what it means to no longer be? Do we ever really let in what that means?

Let the World Break Your Heart | Dear Penn Freshmen

Read the published article here

Dear little me,

I can see you sitting right now in the little room you were so excited about with the blue duvet and bookshelf waiting to be filled, looking at the next four years like they contained more time than you could imagine. I know you're feeling wonder and fear and trepidation at the mountain in front of you, with no idea who the person who comes out the other side will be.

Communion

Last night I took communion with the stars. They danced with their flames, I with my eyes, our bodies perfectly still. They reached out to me, and showed me the veins that criss cross the universe. 

Some Learnings about Learning

These thoughts are based primarily on reflections on my undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. They’re concepts that I’ve noticed have helped me learn, and for which I’ve had to do most of the work myself (they’re not prioritized or talked about frequently at college). This is not comprehensive, but is a beginning foundation of my thoughts on learning that will develop as I continue to learn.

      1. Personalization
             1.1. Ownership of your worldview

             1.2. Learning to improve your life

             1.3. Freedom to choose your intellectual agenda

             1.4. Consolidation of learning

      2. Build the trunk first
             2.1. Add more angles

             2.2. Examine the paradigm assumptions

     3. Mental models and critical thinking tools

     4. Prioritizing construction

Career Frameworks

As a college student, the question of career direction is on my mind a lot. After spending a few years bumbling around in confusion, I realized: 

1. How much value I got from good, strategic, introspective conversations 
2. Having these conversations was haphazard, and depended on me having friends who were good at asking strategic questions.

Based on this, I started running Life Mapping sessions at my college. I wanted to share the thinking behind this initiative. If you have any feedback on these questions and frameworks I discuss, or suggestions for frameworks that you've found useful, I'd really love to hear it – you can contact me here.

1. Motivation
2. Overarching framework
3. Questions
4. Frameworks
5. Worldview Questions