Lauren and I drove back from Georgia yesterday to my family home in New Jersey. We had a great adventure of a month down in Blue Ridge, a beautiful place to spend some Spring.
The day before we left for Georgia, I wrote that I would be experimenting with Blog of Jake. That experiment is now over but my days of experimenting have only just begun. For some context, below is a brief timeline of the blog’s history so far:
12/01/19 – I begin posting once per day every weekday
02/17/20 – I begin posting The Weekend Miscellaneous every Monday, still posting every weekday
05/25/20 – I begin something different for the month instead of the usual writing, still posting every weekday
Tomorrow marks a new milestone. It is the beginning of a new chapter for the blog. It might only last a few days. It might last a few decades.
6/23/2020 – no rules
No rules means that I will write and post what I want when I want.
I have written often how I hope my writing is useful, enjoyable, or otherwise impactful for you and I am pleased every time I hear from someone that it has been. Still, I have always been transparent that I am writing first and foremost for myself. It makes me think. It helps me organize my thoughts. It leads me to learn. I enjoy both the process of writing and the satisfaction of having written.
Writing every weekday helped me build the habit of writing. It made me comfortable sharing my personal perspective publicly. It forced me to write on days I did not feel like writing and on many of those days I ended up writing something I was glad I wrote that I never otherwise would have written. This is a benefit of self-imposed rules. They can make you do things you will be glad you did that you never otherwise would have chosen to do, like writing when you don’t feel like it or running in the winter in the rain.
As much as I believe in making rules, I also believe in breaking them.
Tomorrow is my 26th birthday, a great day to make a change.
I will still be writing. I will still be posting. One thing that was hard to do when I was writing every weekday was to go deeper into subjects and spend more time over a number of days writing and editing and working on the same piece. I am hoping to do some more of that.
Through great luck and a couple years of hard work, I was fortunate to be able to gift myself this time not to need to worry about making money or getting a job. That said, as the slow burn of money continues and the months since I was last employed add up, I am frequently reminded that all things are fleeting, including the nature of this particular period of my life. I am reminded of the value of the gift of freedom that I have given myself, and the fact that there are many amazing things that I can do with it.
When all rules are removed and one no longer feels they have to do anything, one can begin to see more clearly what one wants to do simply by observing what one does. I do not know exactly how much or how little I will be writing and posting in the immediate future, but I know that I will be doing both. I already have a couple of pieces in the works that I got started in Georgia and I am excited to eventually share them with you. I believe that this is still the very beginning for Blog of Jake. This might be a good time to subscribe (just below the end of this paragraph on the left). That way, when I do post, you will not miss it. Thank you as always for reading.
Until next time,
Jake
