Your brain doesn't age because of time. It ages because of repetition. The more predictable your days become, the faster your neurons quiet down. Your brain builds neural pathways based on experience. New experiences create new connections. Repetition strengthens old ones. But when you repeat the same patterns for years, your brain stops building. That's why time feels faster as you age. Your brain stops encoding new memories. It just references old ones. A year at 40 feels shorter than a year at 10, because at 10, everything was new. At 40, everything is familiar. But neuroplasticity doesn't stop. You can still grow new neurons. You can still learn. You can still change. You just have to break the loop. Your brain will wake up. And time will slow down again.
when people say “stop being political” what they really mean is the system works fine for me and you’re ruining my vibe by reminding me it’s built on other peoples pain
1. They talk to us condescendingly, as if we’re children or ignorant.
2. They expect us to sacrifice work–life balance because they do.
3. The wages simply aren’t livable
4. The work environment is toxic, and they resent us for calling it out.
This is such a symbolic example of what it means to be a Black man in a racist society. You are already perceived to be the aggressor—violent, criminal—and all rationality is suspended to make you into that thing. While you are trying to explain that you are actually the victim, you are being attacked. So even though you are being labeled the aggressor, you’re actually the victim. And it could be revealed instantly that you are the victim (literally, check the bag), but the people around have suspended reality because, to them, you MUST be the aggressor and there is no possible world in which you are not.
And you have to maintain your calm and withstand physical attacks because if you don’t, then you risk being killed—and it will then be justified because they’ll say you were the aggressor.