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> If this resonated with you - reach out to me on Twitter It resonated with me, right up until the "on Twitter" part. A few weeks shy of 20 years ago, I was a

> If this resonated with you - reach out to me on Twitter It resonated with me, right up until the "on Twitter" part. A few weeks shy of 20 years ago, I was a fed-up high school student and made probably the best decision of my life so far. I loaded my stuff in to the back of a beat-up Nissan 720, drove it over to the high school to return their books and sign a few papers to drop out, continued driving a few hours down the road to Georgia where I unloaded stuff in to storage the next day, then started walking the Appalachian Trail... Just a few minutes ago, I got off the phone with a friend from 500-odd miles in to that walk; he recited a line from Thoreau about most men leading a life of quiet desperation. My friend had to cut our call short, as a childhood friend of his was on another line, presumably with news about their recent stage-4 cancer diagnosis. We're talking about a canoe trip, and I very much hope we actually make it happen. But, in the meantime, I have an infinite list of bugs to work on.

seanbarry 4y ago
Author here. You'll notice I didn't ask the reader to "follow me on twitter". I had ~30 people reach out to me in DMs on twitter. Some were people who feel in a similar position but don't know what to do. Others were people who have been where I am and offered advice. Twitter is just a tool to connect with people outside of the immediate circle I have around me, I don't think there's any problem with using it as such.
- bacon_waffle 4y ago
  Forgive me, but I don't understand the relevance of "follow" vs "reach out to". In the post, you wrote a paragraph starting with `Almost everything around me is designed to addict me.`, which seems incongruous with communicating through Twitter. I'm glad it has worked out well for you and those ~30 other folks anyway. Mainly I intended to say that I have exited and successfully re-entered the rat race (actually, a few times), and fully support others in doing so. Do it while you can! Many commenters clearly don't get it, and probably never will. But, I do, and I don't have a Twitter account.

seanbarry 4y ago

Author here. You'll notice I didn't ask the reader to "follow me on twitter". I had ~30 people reach out to me in DMs on twitter. Some were people who feel in a similar position but don't know what to do. Others were people who have been where I am and offered advice. Twitter is just a tool to connect with people outside of the immediate circle I have around me, I don't think there's any problem with using it as such.

bacon_waffle 4y ago
Forgive me, but I don't understand the relevance of "follow" vs "reach out to". In the post, you wrote a paragraph starting with `Almost everything around me is designed to addict me.`, which seems incongruous with communicating through Twitter. I'm glad it has worked out well for you and those ~30 other folks anyway. Mainly I intended to say that I have exited and successfully re-entered the rat race (actually, a few times), and fully support others in doing so. Do it while you can! Many commenters clearly don't get it, and probably never will. But, I do, and I don't have a Twitter account.