Aidan Bassett

When we fostered a puppy for half of July, we joked that we were “microdosing on parenting,” pretending to know how it feels to raise a child.

My old ambitions died at UC Berkeley, yet the very concept of aspiration holds new meaning. I no longer wish to *be*, but to *do*.

In retrospect, I’ve learned nothing in college except that I was wrong about everything.

There’s almost nothing as private as sex. Yet even fewer things are so ubiquitous.

I never wanted to look back, to imagine myself returning to the study of economics, head hung, tail between my legs. That would have felt like failure.