Helloooo0o0oo!
Here are three things I consumed this week:
How an Ivy League school turned against a student By Rachel Aviv for the New Yorker
I don’t want to say much about this piece because I think it’s best consumed blind. Trust me when I say: It’s well worth the read.
Mackenzie Fierceton was championed as a former foster youth who had overcome an abusive childhood and won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Then the University of Pennsylvania accused her of lying.
🎓 Read the full piece here.
I’m fine, but Papi, I worry my average life is smothering me By John Paul Brammer for ¡Hola Papi!
This week, someone wrote into ¡Hola Papi! (an advice column of sorts) and asked what to do about “the notion that I will wake up one day and be 80 years old and feel like I’ve wasted my life”. I don’t, not identify with this feeling.
His response was lovely:
My abuelo might look at my life and see “the Joker, but gay” while your average Gen-Z Brooklynite who parties every night and pumps out viral TikToks might see me as a twee watercolor shrew living in a mushroom.
Those with stability seem to crave flexibility; those with flexibility seem to crave stability.
It would seem that just as we are hardwired to build a “normal,” so too are we hardwired to entertain the destruction of that “normal.” As with any urge, the key is not to neglect it entirely, but to manage our responses. You don’t need to blow the whole thing up, UA. You just need a pressure valve.
🧘♀️ Read the full piece here.
Lewis Hamilton: The F1 Superstar on Racism, His Future, and the Shocker That Cost Him a Championship By Chris Heath for Vanity Fair
In a very unoriginal move, I began following Formula One in 2020. One thing that stuck out about Hamilton, was how earnest he is in his post-race interviews; he begins by thanking the crowd, even if they’ve been incessantly booing him in favour of his opponent; he follows by thanking the team before he finally celebrates or critiques his race.
It’s earnestness almost to the point of cringe. But once you’ve got a few races under your belt you realise that he really is this sincere. And even if he isn’t, his self control and ability to stand up in front of a crowd immediately after a disappointing race and thank them is pretty impressive.
Heath captures this sincerity in the piece:
Hamilton is fond of adages like “It’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up,” and he seems to use them less as glib catchphrases to brandish when convenient and more as serious guides to better living.
Hamilton also speaks candidly about what happened in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
🏎 Read the full piece here.
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