Week 12
Hey! It’s been a while, but I hope you’ve been well. Life is still going great! I recently moved into a beautiful new place in the Mission along with four other guys, including my brother Neil. I’m excited to finally have my own space that I can settle into and make my own.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my creative output lately. Some of my friends recently shared some awesome work: Chang’s incredible new portfolio and Lily’s zine. After seeing these great projects, I’ve been feeling a mix of awe and motivation. I’m in awe of their incredible work ethic and skill to create their work and motivated to create something to that scale.
Something that stood out to me in Chang’s portfolio was his archive, which showcased a ton of his previous work, from many years past! This prompted me to look back at some of my work. Digging through my instagram, I rediscovered my #100daysofphoto and was in awe of how good some of them actually were. I abandoned photography as my main hobby when I stopped enjoying the work I was creating. At the time, I thought that I would never like my photos again, and for a long while, I didn’t! I was dissatisfied with the photos I was putting out and didn’t think I had the time to reach the level that I wanted to be at. Photography took a backburner since my other hobbies were more relevant to my career at the time.
From 2016 through much of 2018, I was great at focusing on creative hobbies and just making things (photos and illustrations and blog posts and newsletters, oh my!). I have no idea how I was able to do anything of the sort while trying to balance school and switch career paths. I know that if I continued with that level of consistency until now, my body of work would be INCREDIBLE.
It turns out that just like anything else in life, creativity is a habit that you can start and a habit that you can break. The hardest part of creating isn’t necessarily the actual act of creating. It’s tougher to get through the overwhelming thoughts that your work might be bad and that people might not like the work you share. When I was regularly sharing work, I was willing to make and share anything! But now, I’m out of practice, and I’m having to re-learn to not be terrified.
Even with this newsletter, I’ve started many drafts and been unable to finish them since I knew none of them were up to the quality of my best work. I feel like I wrote some of my best pieces within the last year or so, and I wanted everything that I shared to be to that level! However, that same desire is why I stopped writing these every week, since it felt like nothing I was writing was good enough to share.
Fortunately, your prayers have been answered, and I’ll be sending these out weekly again. I wanted my triumphant return to have some fanfare, but I know that wanting to create a new special design will just make me procrastinate more.
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Article
“Learning About Work Ethic From My High School Driving Instructor” by James Somers - an interesting piece reminding me of the beauty of depth and commitment to a role. Anything can be explored deeply and fully. It’s much easier not to though.
Film
Creed II - this is just a good movie. There’s nothing extraordinary about it, there’s nothing too sad, too complex, or too human. It’s just an enjoyable watch that doesn’t try to do more than it needs to.
Playlist
it’s like that - as summer comes to a close, I like to listen to keep playing music that I associate with the time of the year. It makes the season feel like it won’t ever end.
Thanks so much for reading! If you have any comments/concerns or fan/hate mail for me, you know how to reach me (links below).
Love,
Nikhil