The only reason we’re showing my life is because I’ve been poor for most of my life.
When you’re poor, you’re a part of the world. You’re outside. You’re in it.
You don’t have the luxury to sit inside and do nothing.
Outside, that’s where life happens and why today, it is still hard for me to be inside too much and be comfortable. I get depressed hwn I am.
So I have looked for all the free stuff you can do that makes life an adventure. Swimming in the ocea, skating in the streets, talking to strangers, listening to stories, writing. Lots and lots of writing.
The whole world out here is a movie. It’s riddled with fascinating characters that have also ‘struggled’ and have stories to tell. And the time to tell you it. It’s way more authentic - No one is trying to sell you anything and they don’t care at all ab out impresssing you. Those days are long gone. They don’t care what you’re wearing. Where you come from. What you do for a living. What race you are. How old. Who you voted for.
They don’t give a flying fuck about any of those things.
They only care how you treat them and the respect you earn, based on your actions.
You cannot ask for respect. It is only earned.
What is really cool is that the skills you learn out here are a lot of the skills you will HAVE to know to succeed in business. To lead. To guide. To navigate.
If I had to pick a negative, it would only be that it makes it harder to relate to people still in the real world. So it can get pretty lonely if you are trying to find people that understand you. People in the real world have an identity they like to back up and regurgitate their stories. They don’t have the patience, the time or the clarity to actually have a balanced conversation - Let alone actually given themselves the time to know who they are. Enough to be able to tell you.
Most people like to tell you who they are, mostly through the routine things they do, because that’s the script they know. It’s safe. It fits into the ‘rules’. They cannot be questioned too much because enough other people are doing the same thing.
But out here, people won’t even have a conversation with you if you try to give them a script. They’ll slash you to pieces and pull you apart. And, if there’s nothing in there, at best, they’ll just stop talking to you. At worst, they already know how fragile you are (They can see and feel it) so they can do anything they want.
To navigate this weird world (mostly America), you’re going to have to learn how to play these games with people’s identities. Just think, if you meta character in a video game, there’s going to be certain attributes about their character that you have to abide by. The rules are different if you meet a prince in a castle than a blacksmith in his shop. It’s a waste of time to be upset a blacksmith can’t help you get into the castle. In the real world, there’s costumes and rules to what you can wear so you don’t stick out too much or ruffle feathers. If you stick out too much, people might ask you questions - Questions you might have no clue the answer to. So it’s easier to just look like everyone else and blend in.
It’s easier to distract and numb ourselves as time just melts away. To stay asleep.
