I’ve been sort of annoyed with the Internet lately. I think it’s this constant drive from brands and individuals to get people to buy things, a need to make money and profit that just has me sort of jaded by the whole thing. I haven’t had social media on my phone for a few years now, and even interacting with it on my desktop has me rolling my eyes. I’m not in a place where I want to buy more crap that just takes up space in my apartment and my life, and that seems to be all that people care about these days.
And yet, when I try to sit down to actually create, I feel paralyzed. My mind somehow gets caught up in this idea that if I’m not creating something that has monetary value, then I’m just wasting my time. Which is ridiculous. It’s completely the opposite of why I loved to create in the first place. I think about those days when I would sit in my dorm room back in college, creating a blog post just for the fun of it. I barely had any readers then, but it didn’t really matter to me. It was simply about the joy of writing.
As a journalist, writing isn’t always about fun. It’s about reporting factual stories and giving people the most accurate information on a topic. Every statement you make must be backed up by factual truth, and nothing is meant to come from opinion. It’s what I do in my day-to-day—over at work, as well as my newsletter.
But I miss just…writing. Creating for the sake of loving the art. Writing out thoughts I’m having, ideas that I come across, stresses I’m experiencing. I miss connecting with people on a platform that isn’t all about catching your attention span for more than 5 seconds on your feed. As a consumer, I’m way more inclined these days to spend some time over on someone’s blog, or even watching long-form YouTube videos.
So I’ve decided to start a project simply for the joy of creating. For writing without abandon, to let myself write thoughts I’m having about my world and the world around me. I’m calling it Monday Musings.
Each Monday I’ll post some kind of reflection to start the week—whether it be something I’m doing in my life, a thought on a particular topic, maybe a random thing I experienced that I want to share. It won’t really have structure, and it may not always be connected to food or nutrition. Just a chance for me to write a little letter and connect with myself, as well as my dedicated readers. You know, the ones who actually hop in and like to read my blog. The ones who are sitting here right now, scrolling. You guys are the best.
This online space has slowly been growing, and I really want to spend more time with it. Cultivate it and create art that I feel excited about. The perfectly posed recipes, as well as the messy thoughts I’m having in between.
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