Peace

Towards the end of 2015, I was in a low place. And it wasn’t just because there was a strong chance we were going to elect the host of The Apprentice to lead the free world. My woes hit closer to home. I had been in Jacksonville, FL for about 6 months at a new job that was more demanding than anything I’d ever done before. I’d moved there not knowing anyone and hadn’t been particularly successful at meeting people and making platonic friends. On top of that, almost everyone and everything I ever loved was at least 7 hours away. I had the homesick, lonely ass blues.

It was in this context, that I started this blog. It functioned as a salve for loneliness, but also as a way to express myself and stay consistent in my writing practice after I lost interest in poetry and spoken word. No disrespect to those art forms, but I underestimated how much my enjoyment of poetry came from feeling like a member of a poetry community. However, due to the fault of nothing but sub-optimal circumstances, I didn’t feel like I was apart of any community at that time. So I reconnected with the page in a different way, and I haven’t missed a month in the last four years.

Of course, I’m literally and metaphorically in a different place now. I moved to a different city in a different state, and I have quite a few friends along the eastern seaboard. I’ve also learned that the loneliness might have more to do with what’s between my ears than what’s outside of them. My writing went a different place as well. I delved into intensely personal topics and called it “short fiction” when it felt too vulnerable to claim. The old writerly cap.

As enriching as all of it has been, I’m taking time away from this blog to explore some different social and career paths, as well as cultivate a different skill set. It may sound mysterious, but it’s really just uncertainty- something writing has taught me to lean into. I’m not sure when, if, or how I would return to this blog. But I did appreciate having this outlet through the roller coaster of my post-graduate life crisis/mid-twenties. I’m also grateful to anyone who has been able to relate to the stories and personal experiences I’ve shared. 

This season has run its course, but there’s more to come. I feel like it’s just the tip of the iceberg for me. And the ice caps are melting so… I’ll be flooding y’all with something new and potentially life-altering in due time. Be easy.