Withdrawing from school was probably one of the best individual decisions i've ever made in my life, for reasons too numerous to list here, but I have obtained vital wisdom that I will share here:

Log off and talk to old people

Your brain is being microwaved by exposure to almost exclusively under-30s who don't get outside very much. There's nothing inherently wrong with being young or indoors, but it's really starting to click for me that your 20's are a garbage fire, and no one in their 20's knows shit (including me). We are all just so unfinished and terrified and confused.

You need role models that are older than you. If your role models are all your age you're admiring a lot of people that have fewer challenges than you, and not very many people that used to be like you and bloomed.

It won't click for you until you make friends with "boomers" who are the most blisteringly self-actualized people you've ever seen, actively involved in their communities, cool and thoughtful and full of stories, and 80% of the things that seem important to you burn away. You Will Be Okay.

Let me tell you a secret: The bigger part of the fight for good in this wretched world is invisible to the internet, rippling past without surfacing on Twitter or Instagram.

I'm organizing right now to launch a "re-wilding" project around my hometown, and joining forces with a lady who runs a native plant giveaway sort of thing, and she [coolest person ever] [gives off the powerful aura of a level 999 human] doesn't have a cell phone let alone the internet

I'm here to tell you that there are a billion awesome things in your community for you to join with, and it seems to you like they don't exist, simply because the people that run them don't know how to social media

f.f.f. (farmer family friend) is the president of the farmers market in his hometown and they have a facebook page and that's basically it and i'm like, there are so many farmers markets that 20somethings don't know about, aren't there...

But if you talk to a person like this and say "hey i wanna grow native trees/start a community garden/grow a food forest" chances are you will get pelted with connections to 75 other people who are exactly who you need to talk to

There's a guy who just started where I work who is interested in urban and suburban food forests, and because of my brother's volunteer work, I happen to know that a local food bank is about to buy land to start farming on, and I tell him "Here, here's this guy's number, talk to him he'll be SUPER excited to hear what you have to say" and then I think to myself "Networking? Is this networking? EEEEE!"

And listen...

you, a Young Person, may be ALSO just as vital to these not-as-internet-adept folks who are doing good work, because YOU can get THEM connected to all the folks on the internets and link them to resources THEY can't access