In this passage, the author reflects on a personal experience of struggling in graduate school, feeling pressure not to quit due to societal expectations of perseverance. The author explores the historical roots of the "grit and perseverance" ideology, highlighting its limitations in a world with unfair circumstances. They advocate for a new perspective on quitting, emphasizing that it can be a strategic choice for personal growth and societal progress. The passage encourages embracing change and new opportunities through quitting when necessary.
1. The speaker is recalling a dark and stormy night in Morgantown, West Virginia, when they were 19 years old and living alone for the first time.
2. They had been sobbing for hours and had used up an entire box of Kleenex and a giant bath towel.
3. The speaker had graduated from college early and applied for a graduate teaching assistantship at West Virginia University.
4. They were unhappy, lonely, and confused, describing their situation as a "total disaster".
5. The speaker decided not to withdraw from school and return home because they didn't want to be seen as a quitter.
6. Years later, the speaker began to question why they didn't quit graduate school when they were so miserable.
7. The speaker decided to write a book about quitting and started talking to other people about their own "Morgantown moments" or quitting moments.
8. The speaker expanded their inquiry and began to interview neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists, and other scientists.
9. The speaker found out that scientists were studying what happens in our brains when we quit abandoning one path for another.
10. The speaker learned that animals, including birds and bees, use quitting as a great strategy for survival.
11. The speaker eventually went home, left Morgantown, and returned to graduate school. They later earned a PhD at Ohio State.
12. The speaker worked as a journalist and learned to explore the history of quitting.
13. The speaker discovered that we've been thinking about quitting all wrong and have been doing it even worse.
14. The speaker blames John Wayne and other movies that preach grit and perseverance as making us believe that quitting is a bad thing.
15. The speaker discovered that Samuel Smiles, a man from the 19th century, popularized the idea that perseverance leads to success.
16. The speaker found that the self-help movement, which promotes perseverance and success, has exploded into a roughly 11 billion dollar annual business worldwide.
17. The speaker found that the top one tenth of one percent of Americans in 1978 controlled about seven percent of the wealth today, while the same one tenth of one percent controls more than 18 percent of the nation's wealth today.
18. The speaker concluded that quitting doesn't have to mean giving up. It means getting where you want to go by another means.
19. The speaker argued that quitting can be the first step in creating a more just and fair world.
20. The speaker wished listeners a lifetime of quitting, fresh starts, new roads, radiant tomorrows, and dreams they can't achieve until they quit letting go of the old and the familiar.