The real power here lies in Keller's refusal to frame ambition as a choice between two equal options—as if creeping and soaring were merely different preferences you could pick like wallpaper. She's saying something far more radical: that once you've *felt* the impulse to soar, creeping becomes a betrayal of your own nature, not merely an alternative path. This matters because it acknowledges that growth isn't about willpower alone; it's about the violence done to yourself when you suppress what you've already discovered you're capable of. A young parent who's tasted what it means to write seriously, then sets it aside for decades to manage others' schedules, understands this acutely—the creeping isn't comfortable, it's corrosive.