“The possibilities are endless.” It’s a mantra we repeat to reassure, inspire, empower. It makes us feel like the world is an all-you-can-eat buffet and offers us the thrill we felt as kids of spinning a globe and promising to visit whatever fabled land our fingers landed upon. But sometimes “endless possibilities” means an empty Word document with the cursor blinking like an impatiently tapping foot. It means a group brainstorm with open-ended questions that render participants silent and fretful. It means anxiety induced from too much variety in the breakfast cereal aisle or too many tabs open in your internet browser. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Fifteen Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 47 That’s Life The quiet tyranny of clichés. Arts & Culture Issue 45 The Whole Story The power of cradle-to-grave novels. Arts & Culture Issue 41 Mixed Emoji Is a picture worth a thousand words? Arts & Culture Issue 39 Calm and Collected An artist's art collection. Arts & Culture Issue 38 Social Work Hettie O’Brien considers the cost of never logging off. Arts & Culture Issue 31 The Newer You On starting over—and over—again.
