Gullible Trojans and Anxious Michael

The Trojan Horse is yet another one of those allusions (a bit like Pandora's Box) that's so ingrained in our culture we tend to know what the term refers to before we know the actual context around it. Basically after 10 years of meaningless war fighting over which Greek person owned the prettiest woman in the world (*rolls my eyes*), Agamemnon and his army did what the United States apparently still struggles with and realized he was fighting an unwinnable war. So his Smart Friend (everyone needs a Smart Friend) Odysseus comes up with what is now the most cliche military strategy of all time, and was likely even at the time to be the most improbable one - make a giant wooden horse, stuff it full of soldiers, and then give it to the Trojans as a "gift." This plan works because the Trojans apparently have an almost superhuman level of collective gullibility. The Greeks, Odysseus included, pour out of the horse and subsequently ransack the city of Troy. The Greeks then make their leave of Troy, having resolved (?) the conflict, and Odysseus sets off towards his far-away home, a journey that will span years and an entire epic poem which will be forced on teenagers in Hades in high school.

Can we take a moment to appreciate how absurdly obvious it is that this horse was made to contain people? Obviously this isn't the actual Trojan Horse but... It sure would have been impractical if it was. Or the Trojans really would have been dumb as all get out.

The journey I most wish to take right now really isn't about the destination - it's not even about the places I'll be on the way there. The journey I need to go on right now is a journey of finding a way to define myself outside others' expectations. I feel like, for many many years my view of myself and my self-worth have been based on how well I meet certain expectations I believe are set for me, and in recent years this has caused me a great deal of anxiety, stress, and depression as I have found myself not only frequently incapable of living up to those expectations, but also somewhat unwilling. I am certain that I want to go to a college outside of Kentucky, not because I hate our state - in fact, thanks to a service trip I took this past summer, I have more appreciation for Kentucky than ever - but because I need to distance myself from the people who hold the most egregious expectations for me. I need to surround myself with people I don't know who I can start fresh with, and with new opportunities for identity that I can match to my own preferences, not the preferences of those around me.