The pressure of being the smart one or the athletic one is real. You’re allowed to be more than your label.

A label starts as a compliment and turns into a job. Once a room expects one thing from you, trying something you are not already good at begins to feel like risking the only thing you are known for. That is how people end up narrow at seventeen. The label was only ever a description of one part, offered by people who saw that part.

Do one thing badly and in public this term: a club, an instrument, a sport that is not yours. Choose it precisely because you are not the person who does that. The point is to prove to yourself that a description is not a contract.