When I think about the world, I often think about differences in people, trying to find analogs to the things that I know. Well, it so happens that there’s a concept I rather enjoy from reading Wuxia novels: the idea of cultivation.

Cultivation means applying yourself to develop your innate strengths and capabilities – hence to cultivate or grow, as one might grow a plant or a tree.

In many ways, my life right now feels like a process of cultivation: practicing and leveling up in a hundred different ways of applying my mind so that I can become a better version of myself with each second, minute, and hour leading up to whatever we might call a next stage (whether in speech, music-making, money-making, appearance, social skills, and so many other things along the way).

In developing these things, my mind works almost like clockwork, dedicating itself to each one relentlessly, with only a few distractions throughout the day, or at least so I like to think – so I hold such a vision as my ideal.

I find cultivation fascinating for many reasons. Of course, one is that martial arts novels are cool, but there are also lots of other small, intricate things – I particularly enjoy the idea that, in trying to go from one realm to another, you are making step changes and transforming who you are.

In the course of this year, a little part of me that yearns for evolution seems to have sprouted and is growing magnificently.

Why this is so is hard to say, but suffice it to say that I am grateful for it. I look forward to going in the direction that spirit has chosen to take me, for better or for worse.