David Wang

Sorry for the late reply! Thanks for all the incredibly kind and warm messages. Absolutely. If anything, the whole experience, although short, has been deeply influential and has only made me cherish my life more. I got a second chance and actually recovered reasonably well (not 100%, but that's the price of surviving, which I accept). I know a lot of people didn't get the same chance. I'm truly incredibly lucky and I'm thankful for that daily. Although I may not physically be in the sky anymore, I'm determined to make the most out of this life. I will always remember. You guys nudged and pushed me to the right direction and gave me a lot of life advice. Some hard opinions too, but I probably needed to hear them at that time. I couldn't understand everything that was said back then, but now I've gained more perspective and understood more. I have made the best decisions for myself. Time is really powerful. It allowed me to heal and process things at my own pace. Skydiving has shaped me and is always a part of me now. I'm at peace with not jumping again and am ready to move forward. I have. She is happy. I understand her more now. She really loves and cares about me, and she desperately wanted to protect me back then.

Just some early morning reflection. If given a do-over, I would have never gotten into skydiving in the first place. Actions have consequences. I’m grateful for still being here. I’m not planning to jump again - if ever. my five-years-ago self would have never said any of what I’ve just said.

Because the tone of the post made it seem like they were surprised.

Why are you surprised - this has been on his agenda long before the election. It was predictable.

Man, these make me feel really grateful for being young and more intentional about taking care of my body.

First thought was Newsom. I will need to do more research on him, though.

Will do!

The election will almost certainly happen if not with absolute certainty. In the history of the republic since George Washington was elected, US presidential elections have never been canceled, and I genuinely don't see how 2028 would be any different. One of the worse case scenarios I could see is that the election becomes "less democratic" and more "controlled", which could signal that the US is indeed on the path to a dictatorship, but it would most likely be a slow process. That being said, I believe things will get a lot worse before they get better with all the Trump & Musk & DOGE stuff. Resistance against the Trump Administration has started everywhere - people are speaking up and protesting, states are filing lawsuits, judges are blocking Trump's orders, and there are internal conflicts among Republicans on various issues. It's really easy but also deeply understandable to have a "doom and gloom" attitude. Heck, I was reading some news about the "Nazi Salute" at CPAC the other day, and I even hypothetically thought about what I would do personally if I were living in Nazi Germany 2.0. In the meantime, I have been learning about human emotions recently, and emotions pretty much always come before logic. People tend to react emotionally first and use logic later, and this is especially true on social media. The thing I've been taught - and am trying to do - is to use both emotion and logic to form a more balanced perspective, which is why I want to choose intentional optimism. Current American democractic institutions are being tested, but it's not hopeless.

Because there's no real reason to think otherwise. I want to believe in the resilience of the system.

There's just no way he's going to run again in 2028, right? There are some things floating around about this, and it's at least a little concerning. But logically, I I know I shouldn't be concerned because repealing the 22nd amendment is borderline impossible.

$70 million DOGE cut at Purdue

Hi :)

One of Trump's decisions I actually like and support. This guy loves space. He conducted a private spacewalk a few months ago with Polaris Dawn and was the commander of the earlier Inspiration4 mission. It's also very hard to imagine a commercial astronaut like him being a climate change denier. I'm a bit excited to see how he might better integrate private space industry technologies (with spaceX leading) into existing NASA missions. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/science/jared-isaacman-trump-nasa.html

Have you asked your friend how he feels about what happened? Everyone handles this kind of thing in their own way.

I agree with this, and it's not like people have much of a choice. Sure, some people might be able to move out of the country or to another state, but that portion has to be really small. Btw, resistance at the state level has started https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/us/newsom-trump-california.html