on rebranding and learning to forgive myself
it's my rebrand era (again!)
rebrand*: the act of refreshing your persona, content, or self; comes in the form of deactivating and scrubbing your entire social media site to rejuvenate your account
*source is me, probably not trustworthy
hi! welcome to screaming into the void, but in lowercase, my very inactive newsletter where i voice my thoughts, expand on frustrating topics from twitter discourse, or just chat about my obsession of the week. i created this newsletter last year but have neglected it as i focused on freelancing, finishing my bachelor’s degree at famu, and quite frankly — living my life.
neglecting a passion project and consequently seeking to rebrand the aforementioned passion project seems to be a frequent habit of mine. in middle/high school, i had an enormous amount of free time, (you know, before the shackles of capitalism and hustle culture) so i did what a majority of kids my age did: create a youtube channel. it was pretty successful, and i almost reached 1,000 followers… but my youtube/vidcon days are a newsletter for a different day.
there’s no point in subscribing to my old youtube channel; that is a passion project that i don’t see myself returning to anytime soon. (part of me really hopes that i enter my video essay era though)
anyways, with the help of journaling, a delightful psychedelic trip in paris, and the decision to start writing my book, i think i’ve finally been pushed to revive my newsletter (and hopefully, podcast).
that’s right! to my five fans and three podcast listeners: there is indeed hope!
as 2022 has flown by, i’ve said, “i’m going to write a newsletter post about this” at least ten times. spoiler alert: i have only finished one newsletter post, and it was fueled by my alma mater’s respectability politics. “good job, noella,” i tell myself as i stare at the awful amount of drafted posts awaiting their golden day of publication. there’s a fun thinkpiece and appreciation post about renaissance that deserves to be finished.
amidst all of the the exciting things that have happened in my life recently, (i.e. relocating, graduating, starting a new job, getting to hear be sweet by japanese breakfast irl) i’ve learned to forgive myself for neglecting my passion projects.
i’ve accepted that anything that i’ve longed to write here can be written at literally any moment, because i make the rules on this newsletter. i’m learning to accept that narrative for my life and career goals, too. between seeing my friends make cool career shifts in media and attending journalism conferences, i’ve been thinking a lot about my place in journalism and finding a sense of belonging.
i could insert some cliche statement about allowing yourself room to grow as a creative and suggest journaling, but i’m still learning so much about myself as a writer and person in their 20s. if there’s any pisces-driven narrative that i could share, it’s to be delusional. someone on tiktok posted about being more delusional, and i wholeheartedly agree. i’m currently being as delusional as it gets while living through my first northern fall/winter, writing a book, and pretending that i’m a highly-renowned food critic as i try any vegan restaurant in new england.
as i enter my silliest, most delusional rebrand yet, i encourage my readers to do the same and find their destined era! (or, at least an era for the next week, month, or year)
if you’re itching to read more of my writing, click here for the memorable pieces that you may have missed. subscribe for more chaotic newsletter content!