There's a version of this conversation happening in a lot of houses tonight. A teenager comes home flat. Somebody else got the part, the invite, the roster spot, the summer job.
There's a familiar diagnosis in the adult world with a dozen competing names. Burnout. Disengagement. Quiet quitting. The meaning gap. What's in dispute is the diagnosis.
There's a version of you that everybody around you has agreed on. Your friends know it. Your family knows it. And it's probably about two years out of date.
You know the feeling. Somebody else got the part, the invite, the spot, the shot. You got skipped. And the worst part is the little sentence that shows up right after.
