the path

I embark on a series of journeys in life, each more exciting and perilous than the last. Stagnation. Followed by professional, romantic, or social change. Back to stagnation. This is the journey of life. This is the way. In each step, we give up a little bit of ourselves for another identity. I’ve stopped thinking about it as becoming my more authentic self and more about going through the motions in the passage of life. Life has a build-up period. Life has a peak. Life has a plateau.  Life has a decline. Life has the same properties as companies and chemical reactions and friendships. We should lean into that as opposed to leaning away.

The past couple years of my life have been defined by transition: to college, to professional life, to New York, to San Francisco, to my most recent apartment. I am about to make another transition, one which is unlike all other transitions that I have done in the past. For most of my life, I have been doing all I can to minimize risk. In high school, I did I could to get into the best college I could. In college, I did all I could to get the best job I could. One job led to another job. There was always something to be achieved. The road was clear, and all that was left is to put in the hard work to walk the predefined path to success.

I have reached the end of that path. I could continue to walk the path I am walking on, which would lead me to a modest and predictable level of success. Or I could do something crazy. To add risk to my life. To go for greatness as opposed to comfort and insignificance.

We are propelled to take the path of most taken. Humans are risk-averse creatures. Rising up the ranks is a low-risk activity. However, by nature of entropy, rising up the ranks means falling in line with lesser greatness. True greatness only exists in isolation or in context of other greatness. Greatness, in a field of platitude, is not perceived to be great. Very few individuals are great. Even fewer pursue the path of greatness despite having the potential to be great. I will choose that path. It’s a crazy decision, but I must do this.