Career day / Sherman Billiams

It can all be so difficult sometimes, can’t it? I mean you know what has to be done as well as the logical first steps to take that would ignite the whole mechanism that is progression. But even that first step has a first step to it. If the first step is ordering Chinese food then the first step of that is getting to your phone, of which the first step is getting off the couch, of which the first step is flexing your quadriceps. So even the most mundane of tasks ends up being a two hundred-step process.

I don’t know about you guys but that’s a pretty daunting dose of reality to be faced with every morning. Enough to make you want to say “fuck it all” and stay in bed. But obviously we can’t do that, can we? We need to, at the very least, maintain this façade of self-improvement, of the perpetual pursuit of happiness. We need to do this not because it’s attainable, because let's make on thing clear, it’s not. Sure you’re going to meet a lot of “happy” people out there who will tell you to “keep your nose to the grindstone” and “if at first you don’t succeed blah blah blah”. I’ll tell you something right now folks. And please feel free to jot this down: Those people may look happy to you but when they go home at night and look in the mirror they ball their eyes out like the rest of us. Guaran-fucking-teed. No, we need to fake like real progress is just a resume tweak away so we can participate as members of society. Buying into this bullshit, even if you’re just pretending to, is the only thing separating us from urine soaked nut jobs babbling about the Holy Spirit on the subway platform. Christ, they’re probably the only ones that have it really figured out. Pissing on yourself might not be much of a life but I’d argue that at least it’s a life worth living. I'm just saying is all. . .

So don't be afraid to take your time and think things through before making any sort of decision whatsoever. Hell, you can become the resident expert on theories, on ideas, so that in the rare event that you do make it out of the house to socialize, folks will marvel at your ability to describe elaborate plans that, of pursued, would no doubt bear ripe and delicious fruits of labor.

Well, I see your teacher in the back there motioning for me to wrap things up so I’ll leave you all with this. No matter how much shit you’ve got piled up that hasn’t been dealt with, whether that be solidifying relationships, pursuing creative endeavors, or providing yourself with life’s basic building blocks, the fact that you're burdening your minds with the very prospect of making progress. . . well that counts for something. . . even if you end up wasting your days playing with your privates, contemplating action.

Thanks for your time.