Charlotte Jackson
@charsweb
Charlotte Jackson
@charsweb
“I am twenty-four years old and I have still done nothing…I am sure it’s not for nothing that I have been struggling with all my doubts and passions for the past eight years. But what am I destined for? Only time will tell.” I was thirty years old reading this, sitting by a river in Mexico, wondering what I had done with my life. I knew it wasn’t
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Joyce Carol Oates “to a young writer” on Substack
The Metaphor: Jackhammers vs. Hummingbirds
Jackhammers are people who latch onto a passion early and remain relentlessly focused:
... See more“Jackhammers are people like me. You put a passion in our hands and we don’t look up, we don’t veer, and we’re just focused on that until the end of time.”
“It’s efficient, you get a lot done. But we tend to be obsessive
Fear of self-definition is what keeps an amateur an amateur and what keeps an addict an addict.
Master geberalist out of fear of self definition
When we turn pro, we stop running from our fears. We turn around and face them.
your twenties are the time when you master what you think you’re supposed to do. But in your thirties, when you’ve figured out what you like and don’t like, and you’re more confident, you can move on to what you really want to do, which might be totally different.
The amateur believes that, before she can act, she must receive permission from some Omnipotent Other — a lover or spouse, a parent, a boss, a figure of authority.
Me before moving to new york