Ok, I finally gave in.
A second confinement is always a good reason to start something you should have started a while ago...right?
I’m well known on Twitter as the Substack hater.
Yup. I openly hate on Substack. When I first started this Substack, no one was using the platform as a way of making money and it was this fun way of sharing news from the front as a Millennial living through the worst days of a pandemic.
How wrong was I.
As everyone has been quitting their jobs and storming off through passionate Twitter threads about wanting to be free from the editorial voice they are forced to follow (looking at you, entitled privileged white journalist males!), I just abandoned the medium. I wasn’t looking to make any money out of it and the idea that I could monetize my voice for information or access to my thoughts isn’t something I’m interested in. But, sending a newsletter once a week about me talking about my life and confinement - and dating, cause YES. I’m back on the dating train again. And let me tell you, this is the slowest train ever in a pandemic - could be fun. An open journal about my adventures in confinement and my reflexions about life and a round-up of my week. I just need to organize myself correctly.
It was a first confinement project that became real during confinement n.2.
Try to gather your energy to write when you are at the height of a weird pandemic, when you haven’t seen anyone and when Depression is knocking at your door reminding you that it hasn’t really gone away. Try to actually do something for yourself. I saw people - like moi - who went out of their way to try to use this pandemic at their advantage, only to fall down in a pit of despair 3 weeks later. Then, job cuts came in, more restrictions, no friends, no shows, nothing…
I decided to write and get myself acquainted with other people who shared the same passions, interests and who defined themselves as writers. Through this whole experiment and redefining of my person - which I won’t go into details cause I already wrote about this on my website, I started thinking about things I liked and how I could share them in fun ways, while talking about what goes through my mind at all time in a less official way than a post on website. As I scolded someone last week for their use of Substack, I kind of rekindled with the idea of using my account as a way to chronicle my life in this pandemic and how I’ll enter my 30s, a new decade as a clean slate.
But mostly, I’ve got so many opinions and things I want to share about my life and my discoveries and culture that it seemed like a good idea. I know I’m funny, I better use it to my advantage, but mostly to your advantage. Who doesn’t like funny stories? Who doesn’t like a wrap-up of what is being said in my ultra secret all girls group chats? But, mostly who doesn’t want a bit of vulnerability in 2021?
Becoming a writer helped me understand better my inner working and open up to the world. In some weird way, I became more luminous, more present and enjoying more the present moment. Sounds cheesy, but I really like it. I recently sent a picture of myself to my friends at 26 years old and the answer I got from them was surprising.
Damn how gorgeous you are now compared to then! You are shining now!
And I think it illustrates perfectly how I’m about to enter the next steps of my life, my thirties, 2021 and this newsletter. As something light, shining, happy and funny with some darker sides - can’t let them hide forever. But at least, it will be nice.
And it will be nice to share this with you.
Before we continue.
Just some things about how this newsletter will work for future references.
I’ll never ask for money for this. If eventually I do start asking for money, I want to do it the right way and not for access to information or my writing. I might launch a Patreon - inspired by Justine Peres-Smith - in a not-so-distant future, but right now this is completely free!
These are little columns about life, but also what I go through that might be a little bit more hard. If you are not interested, it’s fine. Just unsubscribe, no need to be mean.
If you want to reach out, you always can. I’ll do my best to answer you at the earliest time. I’ll also make sure to read you, I’ll open each e-mail I receive.
Comments, suggestions and questions are always WELCOME! This is a safe newsletter which means you’ll always be welcome however you are.
This week listicle is brought to you by… moi, yours truly.
Every week, discover what I captured my attention and what I liked the most!
Song of the week.
Two songs this week that I really enjoyed listening to. So you get a 2-for-1 kind of deal! Yay!
Hit Me Where It Hurts - Caroline Polachek [2019]
I’m a huge Caroline Polachek fan. She does amazing pop, she’s severely underrated and her songs are pure “hot girl” vibe - whatever this means, I just invented it. Hit Me Where It Hurts is about being stuck in a situationship that seems to be going nowhere and yet, still feeling the love and chemistry. Love how she lists everything that bothers her and how she’s expecting this “thing” to fail and yet she wants to ride it out, just put her fears aside.
Natura Sophia - Isaac Symonds & Yaehsun [2021]
Straight out of my hometown - Montréal! - is the new ambient single from the upcoming album of Isaac Symonds and Yaehsun. Isaac Symonds, a past member of Montréal’s indie rock sweethearts Half Moon Run, and Yaehsun, a Toronto based multi-instrumentalist, are joining forces with the release of Natura Sophia, a 10 track debut album, under the Crystal Math/Universal label. This magnificent composition is haunting and appropriate for the current eerie time we have been in for a while. When Isaac announced parting ways with Half Moon Run, I was excited to see what he was going to do on his own. This track is way better than what I expected!
Tweet of the week
Thank you Taylor Lorenz for this gem.
The one thing I shouldn’t have bought this week
I just want to look like a fancy writer who writes poetry in bed and the Instagram algorithm understood it…
Articles I loved to read this week
This love story by James B. Stewart made me cry. - The New Yorker
This letter written by former CNE Audio producers is ESSENTIAL. - Medium
À la semaine prochaine!
-xo
Y.