001. larger than life

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chapter one!001

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chapter one!
001. larger than life

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    SHE WAS meticulous.

    Ingrid Rivers was meticulous in just about anything▬and she never considered this a fault in her life. To be meticulous was to care; to notice every small detail and never miss a single spot when cleaning the kitchen counter. It was making sure the contents measured to an exact number of milligrams in the cup, the butter weighed the exact amount in order to achieve the specific outcome the recipe would boast. It was about making sure each equation was well-thought-out so the answer would be correct; to ensure the right equation was used to solve the right problem. To be meticulous was to understand the importance of criteria. Einstein himself once said science itself could not exist without epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge▬and while Ingrid Rivers considered most philosophy outside logic to be ridiculous and unnecessary, asking questions to ensure a criterion is something she believed incredibly important; especially in science. It is what separates physics from the metaphysical, it is what separates astronomy from astrology, science fiction from facts and religious influence from scientific discovery.

    Having a criterion works outside of science, too, of course. Being meticulous about anything▬being careful, thorough and analytical about life and its decisions serves as a way of keeping a person out of danger, out of making mistakes▬protects them from doing or saying the wrong thing, saves their health, their future and also allows them to never fall into a downwards slope, but instead continue to rise in their ambitions. For example, Ingrid Rivers would never allow herself more than a certain set of hours to study a day from the information her course gave her▬a specific number of hours required to be given to do well. She did not want to do more than the hours she had decided to make sure she did not burn out, but of course, but could not allow herself to do less, because that meant she would fall behind and not achieve the goals she had set out. Ingrid Rivers held certain criteria for friends▬they had to have at least one or more of the following attributes: loyalty, enjoy similar interests, care about their lives and their work, cannot be arrogant or inconsiderate, and cannot seem as if they find enjoyment in putting others down. The same can be said for romantic relationships. While no one can truly find the perfect criteria for friendships and relationships, Ingrid Rivers can ensure that her criteria will disallow a high possibility of being left behind and hurt.

    She wished to do everything in her power to avoid being left alone and forced to eat her lunch by herself anywhere else except in her school cafeteria, facing jabs from other people about how different she always seemed to be from her classmates; to be laughed at by what she said, or the decisions she made▬to have people frown at her and make judging faces when they thought she didn't notice. So, she had learnt to be meticulous about what she said, how she acted, who she hung out with and what she did during her personal time. If she controlled her life, and the life around her, it didn't allow her to make any mistakes, and for life to throw her into deep waters she could not swim out of, or be burnt by the harmful words of others. She couldn't be pushed down to uplift others in her college classes ... If Ingrid Rivers was perfect, then there was nothing imperfect about her for anybody to pick apart.

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