I love telling stories. I love narrating my own life. If this were an anime, what color would my hair be? What’s my element affinity? [Water, of course] And when is the next time I use chibi to interrupt true human connection/emotion?
But we are the stories we tell ourselves. They matter. We are the authors and protagonists of our own personal legends. It is that burden of responsibility that is really fucking with our younger generations. With so much guaranteed, it’s ever harder to carve a space that you can truly claim your own. With social media, it’s harder to be proud of anything less than extraordinary. If this isn’t good enough to post, is it worth having? That goes for experiences [cellphones at the show, recording shitty audio you’ll NEVER listen too again?] to pets [I’ve seen Aussie shepherd minis. Those things are bred for insta photos.]
I’m not hating on posting either. I build a social media profile, and I use it for crafting myself in a certain image. Instagram is merely a face I crave into “perfection” or as close as I can get with what mediocre photos I do take. Shout out to my photographer friends! Shaquille, Logan, Peter, Toma. I love the work, I think it’s important, I’m always plugging my friends.
See my secret is I truly believe in my superiority. I believe my love, my brain, my body is greater than everything around me. It’s a dangerous cycle, alternating between overconfidence and utter foolishness and darkening despair.
But yeah that’s what we tell ourselves. That’s what we SHOULD tell ourselves. Be confident and deliberate in your journey towards a destination. It doesn’t have to be fixed, it doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t need to get likes to justify it, and failure is sexy as fuck.
I am taking the steps towards, well I don’t know what exactly, but it’s gunna be grand. Just you watch. It might be a grand failure but isn’t better to fall foolishly and entirely than to have never tried at all?
Your life is simply the culmination of this things that happen to you and what you tell yourself about those things and how that affects you. I’m here to find awesome things and speak kindly.
If you want to follow along, my blog is touchstone.space and I will be posting regularly while abroad about books, music, food, adventures, the similarity of the human condition, and generally doing my best to channel my idol.
“I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.” RIP Bourdain.
That’s what I’ll be doing. I’ve got a year and a half, running through Japan, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia. End up in Australia for a beer on the beach. Recenter and catch a ride back home. I fly out on the 15th of April. I’ll be at Campout and Friendship 2020, because fam. But otherwise, Eastern Hemisphere for me. See some different constellations. Finding adventures and writing stories. Seer and sayer.
Come visit me in Asia if you want a friend. We’ll adventure. You’ll make a guest appearance on all the things!
Give me an address and I’ll write you postcards!
Otherwise, I’m going exploring. The world is bigger than we can imagine complexly, and I’m going to fill my eyes with wonder at its intricateness. [Don’t tell my boss yet.]
Thank you! Big Extra thank you to all friends for coming to my weird things. There will be two more in New York before I leave, so reach out if you want to be on the invite list or maybe you’re inspired to be on the mic yourself! I’m so grateful and excited to be here. I hope you’re telling yourself the best stories, because you ought to.