Hi readers,
Seriously you guys have got to get going on this "Wait But Why?" thing. It's changing my life. The latest series of articles (on Tesla Motors and Space X) have given me a naive, college-freshman-level hope about the state of the world.
For me, hope has been difficult to find since college. Granted, for me, "college" was four years of debt-free, chaotic, passionate environmental learning in the idealistic environs of Boulder, Colorado.
I was going to be a lawyer and change the world! I believed it every day. I launched environmental campaigns, eradication-of-world-hunger campaigns, Earth Day campaigns, stop-cutting-down-the-rainforest campaigns, pay-more-attention-to-my-campaign campaigns, etc. LOVED campaigns.
I became the collegiate vice president of the Colorado public interest research groups, I stormed the department when they were accused of firing one of my most sensational professors (LOVED storming things!), I learned calculus, I went to office hours. I talked to small groups of like-minded people (which is the best way imaginable to believe you are having an impact on things).
I loved school.
I was going to be a lawyer and change the world! I believed it every day. I launched environmental campaigns, eradication-of-world-hunger campaigns, Earth Day campaigns, stop-cutting-down-the-rainforest campaigns, pay-more-attention-to-my-campaign campaigns, etc. LOVED campaigns.
I became the collegiate vice president of the Colorado public interest research groups, I stormed the department when they were accused of firing one of my most sensational professors (LOVED storming things!), I learned calculus, I went to office hours. I talked to small groups of like-minded people (which is the best way imaginable to believe you are having an impact on things).
I loved school.
It ended.
I started work. I talked to different types of people. I started to see their point of view. I was able to have a rational conversation with a political conservative. Sometimes I even agreed with them. The amount of waste produced by an airplane flight broke my heart a little less each time. I stopped refusing to buy coffee in plastic cups...because it was easy and I was tired and I didn't want to carry around some big, dumb cup all day. I started eating meat again.
I started work. I talked to different types of people. I started to see their point of view. I was able to have a rational conversation with a political conservative. Sometimes I even agreed with them. The amount of waste produced by an airplane flight broke my heart a little less each time. I stopped refusing to buy coffee in plastic cups...because it was easy and I was tired and I didn't want to carry around some big, dumb cup all day. I started eating meat again.
I was growing up and walking on the level ground of environmental mediocrity. In most respects, I am more environmentally conscious than most people I know. I don't buy plastic water bottles...much. I almost always refuse plastic shopping bags.
By somewhere along the way, I lost the big picture. I am not trying to change the world anymore, I'm merely trying to live in it.
Enter Elon Musk.
He's a super hero. A real life Tony Stark. When I started reading the backstory of Tesla motors, I felt something welling up in me that I hadn't felt in a long time. Passion. This is a hope for the future. If you need some too, read the article...read the article...read the article.
Will give you some hope for an otherwise pretty average Monday.
Will give you some hope for an otherwise pretty average Monday.
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