The wonderful @mistressticia reminded me of a journal quote from the summer after I finished middle school.
๐๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐จ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ค๐ณ๐ฐ๐ด๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ต (our high school was across the street from our middle school) ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ช๐ฅ๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ.
1/
๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ. ๐๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข ๐จ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ ๐ข๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ณ๐บ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต. ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ.
Epictetus says: ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ญ? ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ด, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐บ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ.
Embracing stoicism early in my childhood saved my life. Absolutely saved my life. It is what allowed me to survive horrible psychological and physical abuse not just from my parents, but from my peers, from strangers, from everyone I encountered in the world.
Whatever you need to survive your reality ... hold onto it, embrace it, commit it to your soul and make it who you are.
But most importantly ... have joy. Have fierce, powerful, and contagious joy.
Don't give up your light.
The two greatest threats to my life were being HONEST and being AUTHENTIC. Those two things made my parents the most angry, made my teachers feel most threatened, made my peers hate me, and make insecure white people the most afraid.
You would think that honesty and authenticity would be celebrated, that individuality would be something valuable but that has never been the world we live in. Empire hates strong individuals. It wants collective weakness.
Be true to yourself.
Be your own light.
@thewebrecluse You just described me!!! We would have so been friends on the playground. ๐
@mistressticia we'll just have to make up for lost time on this playground we're on now โค๏ธ when it matters most โค๏ธ
@thewebrecluse Yes indeed. I got you.๐ค
@mistressticia ๐คฃ you know it!