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rsadelleI started Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life? in January and finished it in February. Because it crosses the month line, I'm not counting it as one of my twelve for the year, but rather listing it as a bonus book.
It's a very interesting book, not the least for what it says about Po Bronson. In addition to his tales of his own life, he interviews a lot of people from Silicon Valley and the Clinton White House, which certainly tells you something about the circles he travels in.
In addition to what I've already mentioned, he has some other interesting insights, which I'm going to record here because I don't think I'm going to write the entry on identity that I've been thinking about for a while.
It's a very interesting book, not the least for what it says about Po Bronson. In addition to his tales of his own life, he interviews a lot of people from Silicon Valley and the Clinton White House, which certainly tells you something about the circles he travels in.
In addition to what I've already mentioned, he has some other interesting insights, which I'm going to record here because I don't think I'm going to write the entry on identity that I've been thinking about for a while.
My choices were ruled by that fear, but I never would have called it a fear. I would have advertised it as one of the few things that I knew mattered to me. I would have called it self-knowledge. You want to know where your fears are hiding? Tell me what you know about yourself. Tell me what you can't live without. (282)I thought, "I don't know with certainty who I am. Does this mean I don't have fears anymore?"
Which gets us to the hard part I've been avoiding. Inevitably, getting into an environment of like-minded people, whether it's building your own Grotto or moving to New Orleans or making friends with other social workers or switching to a college in Washington, D.C., where there are other young people interested in politics - inevitably, it means you have to ditch your old support system, family or friends or coworkers or dormmates. You have to inflict pain on people who love you. Oh, they can still be your friends, still love you - but the seat you've saved for them at your Inner Circle has to be given to someone new. And this is never done without the sting of rejection and the collar of guilt. Why do so many people hush the longing to be someone different? It's not because they have to pay their student loans. It's not because the economy is in a lull. It's not because they don't have notions of what they'd like to be. It's because they don't want to be the kind of person who abandons friends and takes up with a new crowd. When is it running away, and when is it the best thing for you? It always looks like running away to those you're leaving behind. (237-238)