Taking a summer job far from home is how you meet the version of you who doesn’t need everyone you know nearby.

Most of what you believe about yourself was assembled in a place where everyone already knows you and the roles are long since settled. Going somewhere nobody has a part written for you takes the scaffolding away, and you find out what stands up without it. That version of you is not better, only unpropped. You cannot meet them from your bedroom.

Look for something this summer that puts you somewhere unfamiliar for weeks rather than days. Even one town over counts, as long as nobody there knows your family.