Non-Career Advice: Chris Prioleau.

Non-Career Advice is a series that asks people - young, old, and in a range of occupations - for words of wisdom unrelated to work, career-building, dollars, or getting ahead.

Chris Prioleau / Writer 

Also: Critical thinker / avid chill-er / amateur clairsentient  

Age: 28

Change happens — let it. "At the end of Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, there’s a stripped-down song called “A Day in the Life of Benjamin André.” It tells André 3000's story — how his life has taken him in so many different directions and how he’s changed along the way, and there’s a parable he sets up at the end that means a lot to me. He talks about being given an old car as a teenager and giving it all his time, because it’s all he thinks about — and then the following summer, he’s not interested anymore. He wants something else.

To me, that’s a reminder of how much we change — and that what’s important to us changes, too. I remember years ago, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew what city I wanted to be in, what school I wanted to go to, what kind of writer I wanted to be. Years later, I got to a point where I’d completed those goals and I'd become that person  — but what was truly important to me by then had nothing to do with any of those things. As 3000 says in the song, my wants and needs grew.

Just like you encounter all sorts of different people in life, you’re going to encounter all sorts of different selves. That’s scary, but it’s exciting, too. There’s another rap song that I could reference now, by 2 Chainz. The chorus says: “Live long enough / it’ll happen to you.” I like that — nothing about you is permanent. So many things, good and bad, are going to surprise you. That’s a wonderful thing."

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Thank you so much, Chris. More from the Non-Career Advice series, here.