The Voice You Choose
Date: 5/27/2025
This book did a 180 by page 160. Holy cow.
It's no longer about finding wonder in the world, but something deeper.
When I first started reading, I thought this was about two ways of seeing the same world—one person finding meaning everywhere, another seeing only resources to extract. It's no longer about finding wonder in the world, but something deeper. Someone else is manipulating our main character for nefarious purposes, but he doesn't know.
But the question remains: do his actions still have meaning?
I was living the same story. I believed I didn't deserve anything good. Things were too good to be true. Or surprises came at random times—it was luck. No matter how well I did or what results I stacked up. That belief extended beyond professional into everything from love to family to friends to life. Didn't deserve any of it. Living like a supporting character in everyone else's narrative instead of the protagonist of my own. Waiting for others to give me permission, to assign me meaning, to tell me what I deserve.
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What snapped me out of it was this:
Are you living life because you have to? Or because you get to?
Even if I'm chained to beliefs I never chose, I can pick a different voice. I get to notice leaves and grass and sky. I get to experience this life, not because I've earned it, but because I'm here and paying attention.
Are you living life because you have to—or because you get to?
Margin Note: "You can fire one narrator and hire another."
"Are you living life because you have to—or because you get to?"