Optimistic nihilism: The art of realizing nothing matters

Optimistic nihilism: The art of realizing nothing matters

I still remember the day I realized that nothing really matters. It was the spring before I started college. That moment of clarity — or maybe confusion — came after the death of a family friend.  He was someone I saw as a brother, someone I still think about often, even if I rarely speak of the situation. Like most teenagers, I didn’t know how to talk about grief or emotions that felt too big to hold. So I stayed quiet.  But the loss shook me. …