Lost

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Plenty to do with nothing to start.

Nothing to finish.

Things to maintain with little to gain.

A future that’s orphaned, words left unheard.

Some feelings are alone now.

Shared paths are just mine now.

Those that relate know when to just walk.

Away or beside, either is fine, just don’t try to found me.

I was found but now I’ve lost.

The Principled Campaign of Donald Trump

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Donald Trump may be one of the most transparently principled people ever to run for public office.

The real estate mogul has been telling us how to understand him for decades. We just weren't listening.

Mocking? Sure. Laughing? Yep. Listening? Nope.

But now that this man is poised to become a leader of the free world, it’s important to understand a few things:

Donald Trump is not a mastermind; he’s a salesman.
Donald Trump is not an evil genius; he's a rich real estate developer.

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Black or White

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The black or white fallacy is an easy trap to fall into. Automatically believing that if "one thing" is true it means the perceived opposite "other thing" must be false can work out pretty well if there's only two mutually exclusive options. But only having two options is not usually a realistic representation of reality.

I made this chart to express how I try to visualize things.

3 Things I Wish I Could Tell My College Self

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Your ability to understand an idea well enough to re-state it sarcastically is the intellectual equivalent of training wheels on a tricycle. Friends that put up with you despite this misunderstanding will turn out to be real friends. If a professor ever relies on sarcasm to discredit an idea, their own ideas are probably weak.

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5 Things I Like About East Tennessee

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With recent elections behind us, it's easy to feel discouraged being a rather liberal person living in a rather conservative state. However, it's also important to reinforce positives.

So I've compiled a short list of things I appreciate about TN.

This is a selfish exercise to practice a habit of appreciation, not a passive aggressive judgement on any fellow liberal-ish leaning fellow Tennessee residents who still feel the sting of local politics and are still in understandably bad mood.

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