I’m an Artist and I’m Sensitive About My Shit

When I post to this site, I push posts out to different social channels because how else do people find me? I use a service called EchoFeed to post to Mastodon and BlueSky. I then manually post to Facebook, Threads, and Instagram to get to where the bulk of my friends are. Then there are a couple of others who have stated they want to read my stuff, so I’ll send them links by text message.

Something got into me with the last thing I posted. I didn’t do that last step, instead leaving it for my friends to find on their own by social channels. I had already posted once during the day, so I think I just didn’t want to be a bother with it.

Well, that post got a like on Instagram from one of my best friends who rarely has time to think (hi, B!). I actually thought they liked it by mistake. So, I checked in this morning and sure as hell, they were able to rehash what I wrote and converse over it. That honestly meant more than any clout I could get online. I don’t post for clout. I post to dump these thoughts out of my brain or else I’ll squirm endlessly. But, there’s absolutely no better high than finding out I’ve connected with someone over what I’ve written and it’s even more so when it’s one of the more important people in my life. So seriously, thank you for reading me.

Here’s the thing about creating. If you’re doing it for the right reasons, you should leave at least a little bit of you in it. I went to college to learn web design. I loved doing it for myself, where I started out reverse engineering elements to see how they worked, which eventually led to me making dope MySpace layouts. Occasionally, I’d make layouts for my friends as well. That I enjoyed doing. What I didn’t enjoy was doing professional work for people who didn’t really understand what it is you do, only to have them harshly criticize what you’ve created. It was hard for me to stand by their stupid requests that had nothing to do with what they needed. Like, say, putting a vacation photo from Ireland on a site for a law firm. And these turds were animate about it. Yet, they’d still tear down what you’d create, that thing you put your soul into. So, I didn’t last long doing web design.

Writing has become that thing that lets me create. It’s that thing that gives me something to put my soul into. Any time I receive that organic recognition over it, that means the world to me. So, if you like that you read, don’t hesitate to leave that comment, shoot me a text, or even strike up a conversation with me about it. I’ll love you for it.