B/c I was just saying this elsewhere & maybe you need to hear it:

Yes, if you were a gifted kid, you grew up hearing everyone tell you you were going to cure cancer someday. (Even if you weren't interested.) No, you have not cured cancer. PRO TIP: this doesn't make you a failure

Galaxy-brain mode, of course, is actually LISTENING to my own previous tweet, because obviously I have accomplished far less with my own life than I ought to have blah blah blah see I'm serious how widespread is the need to hear this.

(I distinctly remember the exact moment when someone said I was going to be some kind of hotshot neurosurgeon, which was after the point I'd decided I wasn't interested in med school, because our own interests & selves were never the point in these conversations.)

Anyway I am HERE FOR cheering on your accomplishments, wherever they are on the spectrum from "honestly Andromeda I'm a cancer researcher" to "totes got out of bed this morning despite pandemic". Your accomplishments, your growth, your selves.

(stop cheering me on, I will reflexively reject all your compliments as clearly the statements of people who don't know what they're talking about and have low standards, but also my ego craves the cheering)

and in conclusion