We rarely buy objects alone. We buy the possibility of becoming someone through them.
Field Notes
The distance between who we are and who we imagine becoming is one of the most powerful forces in modern life. Entire industries are built around it. A necklace, a jacket, a car, a degree, a house—none of these are sold solely for what they are. They are sold for the person they seem to suggest. Most of the time, the transformation never fully arrives. Yet the hope remains remarkably durable. Perhaps because the imagined self is not really a destination. It is a mirror reflecting our longing back to us, asking who we believe we could be.