As someone who is both alive and conscious in the year 2026, lately I’ve been having a tough time with, well, basically everything. And while that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since the world is essentially on fire, both literally and figuratively, it still doesn’t feel great.

The urge to create is overwhelming, but I continue to find myself feeling paralyzed when I try. Pen or paint to paper, hands to keyboard, it doesn’t matter; I simultaneously have a million ideas swirling through my head while feeling like I’m unable to finish any of it.

Essays sit in the Drafts folder or in documents on my laptop, half finished (or less). Dozens, maybe hundreds, of half-assed doodles and drawings fill sketchbooks and journals. Paintings planned but never started. Photos sporadically taken but not shared. Coding projects started but never fleshed out.

I know that some of what I’m experiencing is due to sadness and feeling overwhelmed, and with good reason. But I can’t let those feelings win.

And so I won’t.

I will continue to draw. I will continue to write. I will continue to express myself every way I know how, and I will try to find new ways to do so, too.

I said that by nuking the former contents of this blog, I would be turning over a new leaf, and I mean it. I am going to be more focused with my creativity, more deliberate with what I post. I will not be silenced, by my own apprehension or otherwise.

I will create.