“Growing up I used to believe that my ultimate purpose in life was to become a hardcore all-the-way chareidi person.”
It’s funny – I was the opposite. I used to think that labels were terrible and all that mattered was Avodas Hashem. But then I eventually realized that that wasn’t realistic. I do have to be part of society and have a label in order to survive. And I need to survive in order to be an Eved Hashem.
I used to think “boxes” were terrible. But eventually I realized that if you have a box, you can get away with “out-of-the-box-thinking much easier.
I guess everyone starts off in a different place and t/f has to take a different path to reach the same goal. As long as we are all headed in the same (right) direction.