“I’m lying in the dimly lit trunk of my car before work, I question if life is just a social experiment we didn’t agree to — and why trying something different matters.”
— The Stratagem’s Archive
Welcome — However You Found Your Way Here
Is Life One Huge Social Experiment We Didn’t Know We Consented To?
Hey, fellow archivists,
I was sitting in silence earlier — not meditating or anything deep, just letting the silence stretch on the drive to work. Sometimes, that’s when the most unexpected thoughts show up.
Here’s one such thought that landed in my head that I wanted to share:
Does being alive — being human — feel like a massive social experiment no one knew they consented to?
Because it does to me.
Every day feels like a trial. A simulation. A repeat of variables. Everyone sticking to some script handed to them, but didn’t realize they got, while expecting new results.
Meanwhile, life keeps throwing us curveballs and saying: “Adapt. React. Cope.”
And the weirdest part?
We can try something different… but when was the last time we tried something different?
We are a habitual creature — we wear the same pain. Repeat the same patterns. Stay in jobs we hate to survive. Perform the same “I’m fine”s. We don’t realize something needs to change — but we’d still want life to feel different.
Today, my “trying something different” was weird, small, and personal:
I simply changed the way I sleep in my car before work.
Yeah — still sleeping in the car, but this time I tucked my upper body into the trunk with my backseat pulled down, my 2 small fans running and the street lights shining into my car, while I let my legs stretch out in the body of the car.
It’s not poetic. I’ll probably hit my head later. My trunk’s full of junks I never took out or organized better. But I’m more comfortable than when I curl up in the backseat.
And weirdly, this small adjustment made me feel like I had some control over my comfort. Like I outsmarted the box I was given.
Sometimes, trying something different doesn’t look like starting a business or moving across the country. Not always at least.
Sometimes, it’s laying down in a new position.
Or letting yourself ask strange questions that seem to suddenly appear in silence.
Or writing down your thoughts with a dim car light and a keyboard glowing in the dark.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re stuck inside a life you didn’t design, just know — you’re not imagining it.
But maybe there’s still room to adjust.
To experiment.
To find a better way to lay down, or stand up, or stretch out into something that feels like yours.
Thanks for being here.
More soon,
Letters from the Void Newsletter
— The Stratagem’s Archive
P.S. If this resonated with you, you don’t have to reply — but maybe try something small and different today. Just to remind yourself you still can.
If you’re subscribed, thank you. These newsletters are where I put the thoughts that don’t always make it into my blog — the quieter ones, the stranger ones, the ones that live in the dark before shift.
This newsletter isn’t about updates — it’s about documentation. The kind that matters when no one’s looking. The kind fellow archivists might recognize in their own lives too.
P.S: If you subscribed but haven’t received anything yet, there may be a hiccup with WordPress/Jetpack. Emails might land in your spam or promotions tab — or sometimes it just doesn’t send (frustrating, I know). But I promise I’m still writing, even if my words take the long way to reach you.
