In the Age of Alpha

my story

goes a little bit like this

in the sixth grade i received a 15 on 20

in my first math test now

i was okay with this until

i turned over my shoulder to see my

friend

crying endless tears and as i traced a

teardrop down to her paper

i noticed an old head scribbling

a 16 on fight in the seventh cave

i became aware of my daughter

i didn’t mind my necks crony limbs

petite waste

and acne scars until the point from my

class

chose to point it out and they came

clear in the eighth grade

i started to hate speaking in class my

legs would shake

and my tongue would fumble out words

that made

absolutely no sense

my whole being yearned for a perfect

little world

to fall right into my arms and in crazy

newton’s third law of motion states that

for every action

there is an equal and opposite reaction

and when you try to bend the unhealing

universe to your own will

you will inevitably break

two years later i look back wanting to

desperately comfort my numbers

but with questions still longing in my

head

why do we all seek to define and strive

for perfection

in a world that is inherently impossible

why do we never feel like we’re enough

why do we tear ourselves down for not

being able to beat

insane statistical logs like being at

the top one percent of our class or

in the states leading varsity

well maybe the answer lies in one of the

greatest academic theories

of all time masterclass hierarchy of

means

that put self-actualization at the very

top

of the pill this is to say

it is within our innate psychology that

once we have satisfied our basic

physiological needs

our brain only seems to do more and more

to become more and more and at first

glance it’s

pretty amazing that we can do this i

mean crocodiles don’t have the ability

or the desire to perhaps create art and

neither do monkeys care about earning

the highest possible salary

only us humans have managed to climb up

the ladder of revolution

to a point where we can self-actualize

but what we often fail to recognize

is a paradoxical outcome of this very

situation

the closer that we get to

self-rationalization

the more skills we acquire and the

higher our sleep becomes

yet the higher our season becomes

the further away we actually are from

being self-actualized

this leads us into a self-sabotage cycle

that seems to go on forever a cycle

that we seem to translate into every

aspect of life

after all society invented superman not

average man and no one wants to be the

ladder

but eventually we come to realize

that even the best of the best out there

those who

put up the skyscrapers write the best at

us perform

on international stages may in fact

be the suffering whereas

those individuals who without agony

can bear in ordinary rights the

so-called contented mediocrities

may in fact be the emotional superstars

the aristocrats of the spirit and the

captains

of the heart so how do we radically

change our beliefs

that are otherwise set in stone

while somewhere along our childhood we

tend to deny the impression

that we must be extraordinary in order

to deserve

a comfortable place on earth however

this is simply not the case

we have to start embracing the ordinary

and realizing the huge potential

in the little moments of life we can’t

all be shakespeare’s attracting picassos

at painting

and michael jordan the basketball

and eventually once we are beyond the

expectations of others

we may encounter your lives that life’s

true luxuries

may comprise nothing more than

simplicity

little kids waving to you at the grocery

store

crunching autumn needs below your feet

painting a masterpiece without an

audience

loving without too much hopefulness

there

hot baths cool wind and perhaps the bowl

of sliced apples with some peanut butter

and a little bite of dark chocolate

thanks

[Applause]

you