Gm Dear,
These last few months of my summer have been great. I mean, really full of surprises, unexpected moments, mainly time with others, and a few days with myself. I initially started thinking about these words sitting on Margit Island, looking over Pest. I’m publishing these words from home.
This girl Zsofia asked me a question like ‘do you agree or disagree that there are no coincidences?’ – I disagree, I think there’s a lot of mundane, a lot of story telling, and that only in hindsight we can filter the inputs to create these narratives. Forward looking, maybe there’s experience to then grow. Most mundane is noise that we may assign some value later.
Tl;dr, here’s some thoughts and takeaways in my present moment – split into chapters as I will.
NYC – Really, be intentional with how I utilize my time.
I was invited by Adri to stay for as long as I wanted, and I was so excited at first. That declined, like I knew I’d suffer long term in the situation if extrapolated long term. In part from being under stimulated mentally, feeling like their care taker, and even the pace of life. Their life structure works for them, just not for myself – that’s okay. While my initial plan was to hang with them for the month, I pivoted quickly to hanging out with my larger network of friends here; Gio and Zach most days actually. I fucking love those fools – I assign a high value to moments with them, my cup is never filled. Watching playoff basketball, seeing bands from my childhood, their favorite meals, relating – all while cycling the greatest rides of my life. Tl;dr Don’t overextend myself. My time is a gift and I have no real obligations – pivoting is a feature I worked for, not a failure. Lean into trusting my intuition – it’s gotten me this far, and that’s farther than I ever imagined. Situationships also aren’t really for me.
Philly – Check in on my pals within the larger circle.
My highlight here was seeing how my boi Alex has evolved over the years. Today the mfer lives with his partner, has two cute pets, and is a better cook than anyone I know. When I showed up, he was just starting a new job. Throughout the week I’d say he was genuinely the most positive person I’d ever met. When we first met, we were at SXSW smoking weed in a parking lot outside a venue for an event called Meatspin. These days we rode bicycles, visited his favorite dives, and talked about how to utilize GPT4o. Time with Alex was inspiring; I felt like it was a never ending heart to heart. It gives me excitement forward looking, with my less active friendships that’ll be revisited throughout life.
Budapest – What’s valuable is relative.
It’s an interpretation, sometimes extending societal wide. Mfers here bicycle slower than I’ve ever seen – not even the delivery riders rushing to anywhere. Jaywalking is rare – I think I inspired most of it when walking around as I was still channeling nyc energy. My highlight was when Tay came through for a few of these days – roaming an unknown city and interpreting it together. It was common for me to hear multiple languages, Hungarian, English, French, German – in that order of frequency from my personal sample tbh. Most individuals appear to speak two or more languages. There’s no obesity problem visible, nor when eating out did I ever get a stomach ache (I ate out every meal, v unheard of back home). Tipping wasn’t a thing besides at tourist traps. Being direct isn’t even considered rude – it’s rather efficient. For me, the average mfer here appears smarter and more intentional when weighted against americas top cities.
Romania – I’m grateful for my own optionality.
My boi Ahmed picked me up while driving across Europe and back to his home in Bucarest. I became passenger #4 on what turned into a 15 hour ride. His future wife in the front seat, while in the back with myself, a cam girl with face tats named Melissa. Over the week I was told stories about corruption in the country and communism. They noted salaries are low, most jobs available for their peers paying < 1000 euros a month including Doctors. Homes here are between 200-800 euros. The countries main export in their eyes? Cam girls. A stat that sticks out, ~ 15% of all card transactions relate to gambling establishments. I get it, trying to make my yearly on this 5 leg parlay or stay broke for another pay cycle.
Ngl, talking with Melissa I briefly considered renting longer term a spot on the Black Sea. My quick draft pros/cons list essentially said ‘it’s about 20% of what America goes for, long term you could marry a Romanian cam girl for dual citizenship, yolo.’ Ahmed upon hearing the slightest bit of this unhinged list reasoned with me, something like ‘Don’t trust these mfers. you have everything to lose, she’d have everything to gain.’ Thank Allah for friends tbh.
Romania overall is a beautiful country, really green, a lot of hills, farm lands – an idealism of the American West imo. Departing the country, I boarded a train back to Budapest. Rolling up to the train car I see kids without shirts on, smoking cigarettes out of the boarding door. ‘Different than the Amtrak’ I think to myself.
Tl;dr, I feel that I am winding down the end of a rest period.
I’m ready to continue growing vertically for another season. Sharing openly with others has only been a +EV move; I want to keep doing this. Pals really make life worth living. Satisfaction derived can be irrelevant from any specific inputs. Overall I give myself permission to sit on my hands before moving – my only obligation is to myself. There’s plenty of time on my clock and I can be in no rush.
Love always,
Dumb
