Everything you wanted
to learn at university
but didn't.

Take the long way every time. To and from work. Along the freight train tracks. Where the cottonwoods grow tall. Where they have room to misbehave. Pick a spot. As remote as possible. Not visible from the chain link fence. Lost in the thistle. Atop a pile of discarded railroad ties. The trunk of a fallen tree perhaps. That one slab of cement jutting out of the gravel, spraypainted with the names of seventeen people, friends and lovers, long gone, colors faded. This is the one

Don’t set your alarm. Plan on sleeping in, as late as possible. “The longer, the better,” you tell yourself as you switch off the lamp on the nightstand, as if it were a question of will. Wake up, nonetheless, after a few short hours, still night. Don’t reach for your phone. Don’t check the hour. If you do, it’s all over. You can forget about falling back asleep. Once your mind is back on the hamster wheel, there will be nothing to stop it from turning, nothing to stop the ax

Don’t just lie there on the cold ground, covered in snow. Roll over onto your side, at least, and, from there, into a sitting position. Notice, as you do so, how it stings, your side, the whole bony mid-hip region. Check, before doing anything else, your glasses. Make sure they are not broken. You can handle bruises, sprains, fractures even, but your glasses? No, not your glasses. They come first. So, tap your temples with a gloved hand to check. Wait, what? They’re not there

Do not try to compose an anthem for your generation. Get that idea out of your head. It is simply not how this works. Don’t worry about your clothes or haircut or any of the songs on the radio or any of your friends ’ bands. Focus instead on breakfast, on getting the temperature of the maté right, on buttering your toast with the correct amount of butter, on standing at the window for a few seconds and trying to get a feel for the weather. There is something in the air, somet