In My Own Lane

The greatest minds don’t always have the greatest lives.

That used to confuse me.

You’d think intelligence would solve itself—

that thinking deeply enough would lead to comfort, clarity, or at least peace.

But it doesn’t work like that.

The goal moves every time you get closer.

Each answer opens another question.

Each step forward changes the ground beneath your feet.

That’s when I stopped pretending I was meant to arrive.

I’m not a preacher.

I’m not a saint.

I don’t live well enough for that kind of title.

What I do know is this:

I can’t survive on what people think of me.

Approval runs out.

Opinions shift.

And applause has never paid the cost of being yourself.

So I stopped explaining.

I’m different—

not loudly,

not theatrically—

just in the way I move through ideas, through silence, through choice.

And I’m confident in that difference.

Not because it’s admired,

but because it’s mine.

A great mind doesn’t need a crowd.

It needs a lane.