Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Offer kindness always.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 137 →Block out the noise and trust your gut.
Mario Molina
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
So achievement, to me, is something that just comes with this attitude of doing your work the best you can in a passionate way. It’s not something that you have to expect. It’s something that’s a consequence of what you do, but it’s certainly important.
Nothing’s guaranteed and things change in an instant, and to get used to that and stay in the moment.
More from Erin Doherty
View profile →Sounds cliched, but I always wanted to be an actor.
Oh when was the last time I didn’t?! I’m a crier. I cry. All the time.
I was the PE technician at my old secondary school, so I had to pump up all the balls, wash all the kits and get the form notes in before morning registration every day.
Mornings. Playing music, fresh coffee, dippy eggs and soldiers, my girlfriend – what’s not to love?
Regrets. That’s no way to live.
I am genuinely buzzed about it! I think we just keep getting better, smarter, wiser, truer, happier.
More on time & hindsight
- When were you happiest? 577 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this
Oliver Sacks, Robert Carlyle, Kate Bowler, Richard Coles, Simon Boas, Paapa Essiedu
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