Reflection

The fidget spinner cracked the happiness code. Our brain tweaked, like a cat with his red dot. In 2017, Amazon’s top ten best selling toys were all a variation of this spiraling addiction. Tik Tok doubled down. People realized in a world of sex and violence, it is easier to retreat to our brain stem. But we rather be picking berries and chopping firewood. Instead, we order groceries to our doorstep and turn up the heat from our handy dandy iPhones. We fund our convenience lifestyle by populating excel spreadsheets and letting ChatGPT write our emails. Productivity goes up, up, and away. We can send an email, listen to a self-help podcast, water our cat, attend a fireside chat at work, while driving at 85 mile per hour hoping someone will T-bone our car because we can’t afford next month’s payment. Bezos is proud.

The iPad babies scared me from my cellular device into the world of literature. I dipped out of the corporate nightmare to pursue skiing. I moved to New York City for the challenge. A beautiful girlfriend and the finest friends. But something was missing. My internship at SnowBrains tickled this itch. I needed a creative outlet. Room to form my own opinions, ideas, style. I dove into projects about my skiing adventures, but when I found myself in the middle of an article about a storm’s influence on the election, I knew the sand had run out. It was time for me.

The Big Al Project was born. Here I write whatever the fuck I want to. To be me. Or find me? No. To create me. The spark of three months has started a fire, and once I saw the light, felt the heat, retreat was not an option. Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do and die. Consistency is always a struggle, but I no longer need to fight the deadlines of a lab reports or a java script I could care less about. When writing, you never know what you will unearth. I have discovered the meditation of reflection, the power of word choice, and the necessity of intention. You can watch every YouTube video, but alas, true discovery is only done by jumping off the cliff and landing on your face. In our world, tic tic tic, we want only correct answers, tic tic tic and we want them now tic tic tic. How do I make tic tic tic money now tic tic tic? The market has become saturated in self help books, and Tik Tok life hacks. The only self-help books are real books, that challenge you mentally and spiritually. The only life hacks are to experience your life, not from an influencer that makes money off your following. If you made it this far, congrats. You still know how to read. Next week I will not procrastinate on writing this and spare the ramble.