I just imported a trove of my old posts from an ancient blog I had started while in college in 2007. I called it “magni formica laboris” because I always thought of myself as an ever-toiling ant: hardworking but also simple-minded, following trails laid out ahead of me. The toil was due more to walking in circles than to ambition or work ethic.

Looking back at these posts, many are laughable and naïve. They lack a certain seriousness and scholarship. They certainly lacked discipline; I wrote what I felt like writing or sharing. Some of what I wrote, I’d like to disown. Let this serve as a constant reminder that I am hitched to my past and answerable to it. Wrap us in whatever we like, we are still our selves.