Barnaby Hurst, like most of us when we can dial in deeply enough, is here to live a full life. Barnaby’s story shows us how one young person, a high school senior on the precipice of so much change and possibility, chooses to generate and inhabit spaces, ideas and relationships that fills their life with connection and meaning.

Through learning about himself, by spooling and unspooling all the many threads and tangles about what it means to try to be a good human in a complicated world, Barnaby has been and is trying to move with intention and grace towards a way of being where he places care, for himself, for others and for the world, at the center. We asked him to share the truest, most beautiful story about his life he could imagine, and Barnaby told us, “When I was younger, 13, there was a stray cat problem in my neighborhood. Lots of kittens sick, their eyes covered in snot slowly drying. They couldn’t see for the life of them, and so they would meow like no tomorrow and into the night for their mom and for security of any kind and they did not move very fast. Helpless little flea balls, blind and sick in clusters of themselves trying to stay warm in the early spring air, cold by nighttime. I would go out, and grab them in bunches, usually two at a time webbing out my fingers... One night I walked down with the carton of milk pressed against my stomach, as opposed to keeping it open or more relaxed, hunched over it, keeping a gap no more than a cm wide at any time. I remember how difficult it was to keep an actual adult cat in there, and how painful it was to have her fight against my stomach. She turned out to be a male cat who was taking care of them, which checks out. He did get sterilized, which was good, and the kittens had a bad few infections going through their lungs, but I saved a lot of kittens that spring. Normally, when I tell the story to someone I’m trying to seduce, I don’t tell them I only caught a dad. I like to imagine that makes me their kitten mom, but no, I don’t think the kittens even registered me beyond a pair of hands and a nursing bottle. I don’t tell the people I’m trying to seduce that bit either.” Look, even people who center care and can hold mewling, fragile yet determined life in their bare hands, have to consider how to present their story to a romantic interest. We get it. We are all both living our own lives and figuring out how to share and present that life with the people and world around us. However he is figuring out how all the pieces fit together, Barnaby continues to care and continues trying to lead a life that feels meaningful.

When we asked him about his proudest accomplishments, he started with, “My cat is not dead.” Well, lol, fair enough. Basic survival is surely step one. Then he goes on, “I got in the habit of hugging my little sister and wishing her good night.” And we see how Barnaby, from cat survival to creating a nightly ritual of sibling care and connec tion, practices living and loving like the actions they are. Barnaby told us, “I spent time with friends and with a lot of help, I refined and reworked and did a lot for the [table top role playing game] system I made. If I refine it and add a bit more then I’ll probably call myself proud of that soon enough. Not yet though, not yet.” Barnaby goes on to talk about how he “filled out enough grants and scholarships to where I will have most of my college savings left over. My final big grant came in today, which was another 20K on the pile, absolutely giddy about that one.”