<33 so so good. it's so beautiful to taste how it feels to love what you do and to not feel like you're fighting for your life at all times. the great part is the farther u go down this path of choosing this over the "canonical grindset", the more your whole life just becomes this!! :)
This is a beautiful piece and it captures a lot of the way I was thinking and brings out more feelings I hadn't had a chance to let myself feel.
You're welcome of course for the oat milk. I cherish our memories together, such as our trip to the roof at the dinner in London and our train ride discussion about the unique opportunity you applied to.
I had been thinking that what I wanted from a career and from life is more ERA. Longer, the same type of people, but with more time to form connections, more freedom to do things together for longer than eight weeks. Your piece is bringing me the realization that: one, that might not be possible if it's some magic of temporary communities that made era what it was. And two, that even if I find such a place, it won't be with these same people that I've grown to love. 💔
I hope to see you again. I look forward to the ERA reunion we need to make happen.
Matthew!! thank you for your comment, and for the memories-- and yes! one of the perks of AIS is that it's such a small field* that we're almost certainly going to see each other again :)
*this does also mean we might be cooked, but anyway
i do think that temporary communities have magic, but enduring ones have their own kind of magic, too. and there are people in our lives for whom we don't need to optimize, we don't need to perform-- we can be just as messy and authentic as we are when relationships have expiration dates. maybe "ability to be authentic" is a bimodal distribution? (high for short term relationships, and for the most important long-term relationships, typically family/your partner)
edit to add: perhaps finitude isn't required for authenticity, but it's something like a shortcut to it. in long-term relationships you have to earn that same openness over years, vs. temporary communities make it easier to have that kind of openness on day one.
Glorious glorious glorious... I suspect this will resonate with ~all of the AIS fellowship folks. MATS, XLab, WAISI, uni... we are all tapestries of the communities we've been a part of. Every person with such different background being thrown together into one place, working on a shared passion, doing random sidequests, etc
Really good and like a good portrait of something kinda heartbreaking. I have a lot of treasured connections from transient intense environments like the ones you describe. Like, what choice do you have but to keep opening your heart up to places and people you're going to leave? NOT doing that? Oh, well, no thanks.
such a good point about how you can't *not* choose temporary communities! hence why i'm at inkhaven hahahaha...
i guess opting into these kinds of communities / programs over and over is, in some ways, kind of like signing up for a subscription to heartbreak. you know the relationship is going to end, but you also know the growth and connection and love will have been worth the hurt.
thank you andy!! you were one of the first people i talked to at ERA, and i really appreciate how you were always smiling / warm / friendly to everyone :) really helped me feel less out of place joining a week late!
- ESPR ruined me, but my life is finally better than ESPR, after three years of trying. you’ll look back from a life better than ERA sometime
- ‘high-frequency _unplanned_ interactions’ is an important ingredient of closeness (there r two others i’ve forgotten)
- loved this post <3
<33 so so good. it's so beautiful to taste how it feels to love what you do and to not feel like you're fighting for your life at all times. the great part is the farther u go down this path of choosing this over the "canonical grindset", the more your whole life just becomes this!! :)
This is a beautiful piece and it captures a lot of the way I was thinking and brings out more feelings I hadn't had a chance to let myself feel.
You're welcome of course for the oat milk. I cherish our memories together, such as our trip to the roof at the dinner in London and our train ride discussion about the unique opportunity you applied to.
I had been thinking that what I wanted from a career and from life is more ERA. Longer, the same type of people, but with more time to form connections, more freedom to do things together for longer than eight weeks. Your piece is bringing me the realization that: one, that might not be possible if it's some magic of temporary communities that made era what it was. And two, that even if I find such a place, it won't be with these same people that I've grown to love. 💔
I hope to see you again. I look forward to the ERA reunion we need to make happen.
Matthew!! thank you for your comment, and for the memories-- and yes! one of the perks of AIS is that it's such a small field* that we're almost certainly going to see each other again :)
*this does also mean we might be cooked, but anyway
i do think that temporary communities have magic, but enduring ones have their own kind of magic, too. and there are people in our lives for whom we don't need to optimize, we don't need to perform-- we can be just as messy and authentic as we are when relationships have expiration dates. maybe "ability to be authentic" is a bimodal distribution? (high for short term relationships, and for the most important long-term relationships, typically family/your partner)
edit to add: perhaps finitude isn't required for authenticity, but it's something like a shortcut to it. in long-term relationships you have to earn that same openness over years, vs. temporary communities make it easier to have that kind of openness on day one.
What a wonderful read. Congratulations on ERA
Glorious glorious glorious... I suspect this will resonate with ~all of the AIS fellowship folks. MATS, XLab, WAISI, uni... we are all tapestries of the communities we've been a part of. Every person with such different background being thrown together into one place, working on a shared passion, doing random sidequests, etc
Beautiful post, Sophie!
Really good and like a good portrait of something kinda heartbreaking. I have a lot of treasured connections from transient intense environments like the ones you describe. Like, what choice do you have but to keep opening your heart up to places and people you're going to leave? NOT doing that? Oh, well, no thanks.
such a good point about how you can't *not* choose temporary communities! hence why i'm at inkhaven hahahaha...
i guess opting into these kinds of communities / programs over and over is, in some ways, kind of like signing up for a subscription to heartbreak. you know the relationship is going to end, but you also know the growth and connection and love will have been worth the hurt.
Brilliant.
thank you andy!! you were one of the first people i talked to at ERA, and i really appreciate how you were always smiling / warm / friendly to everyone :) really helped me feel less out of place joining a week late!