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Dear Self; we need to talk about ambition – Aceso Under Glass

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I keep seeing advice on ambition, aimed at people in college or early in their career, that would have been really bad for me at similar ages. Rather than contribute (more) to the list of people giving poorly universalized advice on ambition, I have written a letter to the one person I know my advice is right for: myself in the past. Dear Past Elizabeth, Your life is, in some sense, a series of definitions of success. First you’re in early school, and success is defined for you by a handful of adults. You go where they say, do the assignments they say, when they say, and doing well means meeting the goals they set for you. Even your hippie elementary school gives you very few choices about life. You get choices in your leisure activity, but that (as they have explained to you) is leisure and thus unimportant, and there’s no success or failure in it. Then you get further in school, and the authorities give you some choice over the hoops you jump through. You can choose which book you wr

I keep seeing advice on ambition, aimed at people in college or early in their career, that would have been really bad for me at similar ages. Rather than contribute ( more ) to the list of people giving poorly universalized advice on ambition, I have written a letter to the one person I know my advice is right for: myself in the past. The Letter Dear Past Elizabeth, Your life is, in some sense, a series of definitions of success. First you’re in early school, and success is defined for you by a handful of adults. You go where they say, do the assignments they say, when they say, and doing wel

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