13 Comments

Hi Jesse! So lucky to meet you through Write of Passage. It really felt like looking in a mirror reading this piece. I struggled (lol still struggle) with perfectionism for years, and the way I described it is I kept living my life like a race, and I believed once I finally made it across the finish line, I'd finally "win" or be happy or find love or be successful etc. etc. But, perfectionism taught me that the goal posts always move, there was always another finish line after the first. I really loved the vulnerability you brought to this piece via letter to your past self and the part that really touched me is what you wrote about love. It's impossible to be perfect in love. Crushes are the creations of fantasy. Where love is perfect. Real love is crushed by reality. Thank you for sharing your work with me <3

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comments like these are the reason I write <3, finding reflections of ourselves in other peoples writing has always been something I did and it's such an honour being on the other side.

also heartquake is SUCH a good name i love it

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thank u!

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Sep 7Liked by Jesse

I thought perfectionism would cure me, turns out it was only an obstacle in the way towards becoming who I wanna be 🖤 thank you for these amazing reflections

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who do you wanna be :o

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Sep 8Liked by Jesse

good question! i wanna be less of an overthinker and more of a doer, full of creativity, open to being broken, soft, living life to the fullest, both the joy and the sorrow.

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open to being broken is true strength :)

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perfectionism is such a trap because it's genuinely useful for years , but ultimately so limiting. thanks for the comment <3

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Sep 8Liked by Jesse

right? it can seem like that, it seems like it's taking you places until suddenly you burnout. I actually wrote about this in my latest poem, maybe you would feel related to it 🖤

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ooh i very much enjoyed that (I love the pics, especially the last one it's so real 😭)

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💗💗

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Super interesting, especially on the linearity of success being "A" and nothing beyond. Definitely stopped seeing success/failure as a line once I saw all these amazing people doing wildly creative, unique things...

(like doing an MBA in the Hague in the 60s but then moving to Japan to collect Japanese artifacts, and getting endorsed by H.I.H. Prince Takamado himself...) What???

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okay ur gonna have to tell this story next time we call, who is this!??

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