harper stern and taissa turner as examples of how achieving black exceptionalism will psychologically destroy every aspect of your life. when you are dealing with emotional trauma and numbness due to circumstances beyond your control, you come to justify overworking yourself and whoever has to be hurt for you to achieve these goals until you lie awake at night remembering you are pushing away any sense of safety or people who let you know you are “enough” beyond what you offer others….harper discarding kwabena not solely for being 15 minutes late to a date but because she does not believe in being seen in a vulnerable light at the risk of her trauma being used against her…harper running away from her trauma and pushing everyone away until she is only left with surface level work relationships….taissa discarding simone after the car crash and an “altruistic” political career because she cannot deal with the realities of her current life or lack of purpose that comes after the previous trauma that defined her life is ove. whereas van provides a sense of escape and frozenness in time where they only have to worry about themselves, which is its own type of self-imprisonment, much like harper locking herself into her work at the expense of all else…