Heeeeeeeeey girl hey! Remember that? What was that from? Anyway it’s me, Shea, back from a bit of a hiatus due to a chronically broken (but gorgeous) car on which I depend for my income (become a paying subscriber here).
I’m at a new coffee shop that I’ve discovered after realizing the library I’d been headed to is closed on Sundays. (Why don’t I ever write my Sunday Substacks at the library??? I kept thinking on my way to the library that is closed on Sundays.) The good news is the coffee shop is cute, the bad news is I have somehow spent $9 on a latte (become a paying subscriber here).
The hiatus felt permitted by a lapse in paid subscriptions due to a tedious-to-explain tax issue. And even when the subscriptions were turned back on, former paid subscribers had to manually turn their payments back on, a slow process that left an even larger gap without any paid subscribers. I took this as permission to take a little break. Without any money on the line, I felt freer to skip a couple weeks.
But it’s untrue (and would be insane) to say the reason I write a blog is for the money I earn from a handful of paying subscribers (though it is supremely helpful and I am of course indebted to each of you). I started this to have a consistent creative outlet, a deadline, something I could produce each week that kept me feeling like a creative person and not just an UberEats driver*.
Really, I took the hiatus because I’ve been struggling to think of anything to say. The haze of working overtime to pay for my car repairs, while reentering the search for a remote job — something I said I wouldn’t do until I’d gotten my creative habits back on track, which I haven’t —all amidst recovering financially from years abroad and months of unemployment, has not left me feeling very creative. While I’ve been working, all the other parts of life have been piling up like the dirty dishes in my kitchen that beg for my attention (ok simile alert). It’s hard to give that attention to something that requires real thought and creativity. And when it’s my only current creative outlet, each post feels like it represents my entire artistic life, increasing the pressure that scares any creative ideas from coming out into the light. And so I let the unwritten posts pile up like the Tupperware next to my sink (get a new simile!) and avoid them like the plague. And yet, I’m the one who decided to promise a weekly blog, with the intention of sustaining my creative spirit in times exactly like this. So here is my weekly blog.
The tricky thing: what the broken car has made me want to talk about is the thing every girl writing on a MacBook drinking an oat milk latte wants to talk about these days: community. Having it, cultivating it, benefiting from it. I can’t help but feel repetitive, trite, like I’m taking an Instagram infographic and turning it into an email.
And yet, community is the only thing I want to talk about right now. When the car broke, my neighbor ran down the street to offer me assistance (and to join me in staring confusedly at the tire, which felt like the problem but looked completely fine**). Another friend took my panicked phone call and started googling car terms. Two different people reached out, unasked, offering their cars to me to use for work (I’m an UberEats driver). Others sent me remote jobs to apply for. Another drove me to pick up the car when the repairs were complete, which happened at the mechanic run by my friend’s dad, who patiently walked me through the damage. There’s only one way to say it, screaming from the rooftop of this overpriced coffee shop: community is all we have!!!
So maybe it’s boring to talk about. Maybe we’ve all seen the posts about learning our neighbors names and putting our phones away and not flaking on plans — and we’re tired of it! We want hot, catchy takes instead! But maybe the best advice is the boring kind, the kind that sticks around because it’s true and not because it’s flashy, like making your bed and keeping cash in your wallet. And maybe I’m glad I took it, that I left the house and made friends that show up and who know I’ll show up for them. I’m glad I make promises and do my best to stick to them, and have friends who forgive me when I can’t. And I’m glad I promised to write this blog, which might not always be full of hot takes but will always be true. I’m glad that I, well, have a community, here in email-land and in real life.
So I guess — have a nice week! Meet your neighbors and make plans that you don’t cancel! And most importantly, become a paid subscriber here!
*I do love being an UberEats driver, which you can read about here.
**Turns out the control arm (?) had snapped and stuck itself into the rim of the car, which could not be seen from the outside
It’s my birthday on Thursday!! (You’ve been counting down, haven’t you?). Celebrate with a free month of paid subscriptions here:
so grateful to sit in the coffee shop and have a dad at the mechanic and be in community with you
You have the BEST community ❤️❤️❤️