I'll admit that maybe I spoke too soon about vanquishing vapid social norms. Pathetic though it may be (is), my recent surge of emotional interest is proof that part of me feels unfulfilled. Or could it be that part of me feels bored? In no small part, I suspect it comes out of just needing something to pass the time. And true enough, it is a largely harmless pastime in its current incarnation. The adverse effect that I see is simply that, should the day come when I decide that actually some norms are not worth fighting against, it further delays any genuine progression. That's a bridge that exists only hypothetically now, though.

Perhaps this is as good as I can hope for. For someone so resistant to change, working up the gall to even claim to have flipped a fundamental mental switch is something. And in a way, there are some positives to take out of this. The far more pernicious issue with my previous state was an entrapment in the past, which absolutely prohibited anything from the present to make its way through. That I should even find myself in this situation indicates that I'm not beyond being moved by something I see before me, no matter how perfunctory.