2024 and The 555

I started my Medium journey by publishing academic essays that I hated writing and that no one liked reading. I ended up becoming inactive and ditching Medium because I felt like I was wasting my time. My interests have always been the same (history, politics, culture, and lifestyle) but I had developed a nasty habit of writing too formally — and too boringly.

Then, after some depressive episodes and a creative writing class later, I started writing poetry (for the first time — ever). I was nervous to upload my poetry because it was much more personal than the essays I had been writing. Usually, I would upload my posts and then spam all the external Medium groups I was a part of, begging my mutuals to give it a read. I had been on average a solid .50 cent per post earner on Medium, so imagine my surprise when I saw that I earned a whopping $6 off my first poetry publication — without even promoting it to my external groups.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m no longer in academia, I can write how I want about what I want. It is more of a challenge too. I have gotten so used to conforming to a specific set of standards, that I lost touch with my inner creativity. On the first day of my creative writing class, we were instructed to pick one prompt from a list that was given to us for a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise. The timer went off after 10 minutes and all I had was one sentence. A sentence I didn’t even like. A sentence I didn’t even want to share with the class. I’m sure a majority of the challenge stems from my OCD, where my anxiety, perfectionism, and indecisiveness often cumulate in procrastination (I’m working on it).

Though I’m a bit rusty, I’m enjoying letting go of the constructs and relearning how to write creatively. So, I’m going to start doing that more in 2024. I’m excited for this adventure and I embrace the unknown future with open arms. Thus, 555: Change, good luck, transformation, freedom, and personal growth.

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