Here We Go… Again

This is my first attempt at writing a blog post in five years. It feels both familiar and completely new. The last time I tried to write one was during the thick of COVID. It felt like the thing to do. Everyone was losing weight, baking sourdough, and subsequently gaining weight, or starting a podcast. I figured, why not a blog? But if I’m being honest, it was forced, more a product of my own boredom more than passion. I wrote a few half-assed posts that lacked substance, and eventually, I just stopped. My heart wasn’t in it.

So here we go again, once more.

What brought me back to writing wasn’t something I planned. It happened while I was working on a short piece about the recent protests in Los Angeles reflecting on immigration and how the conversation around it is always full of misinformation and false narratives. As I started writing, something clicked. For the first time in a long while, I actually enjoyed it. It didn’t feel like work. It wasn’t forced. It felt natural.

Maybe it was the years I spent studying journalism in undergrad. Maybe it was my time in law school. Either way, I’m happy to say I think I’ve become a better writer and as a result, I’ve started to enjoy it more. For the first time in a long time, it feels like my writing has a voice. More importantly, it’s no longer just about writing well it’s about writing with intention and purpose.

Lately, I’ve come to think of writing as standing at the edge of a canyon and sending your voice out to echo. You release an idea, a sentence, a story something honest into the world, and then you wait to see what comes back.

I’m sure there’s some faded quote on a middle school classroom poster that goes something like, “Good writing should make people feel something.” Agreement, discomfort, curiosity, reflection, maybe even mild annoyance. I get that now. I got the full spectrum of emotions in response to the piece I wrote. If something I wrote stirred anything, a reaction, a question, even a quick message back then maybe my echo did its job.

For me, this return to writing is all about timing.

Where I am right now, personally, professionally, and as a human being, it feels like the right moment to come back to this. The world is still chaotic, still loud, and still complicated. But the energy is different now, and honestly, I feel different too.

And that, more than anything, is why I am here.

Now let’s set one thing straight. This is not going to be a soapbox for me to rant about my politics. Yes, I wear my views on my sleeve. Yes, I advocate for what I believe in. And yes, my professional life keeps me very much tapped into what is happening in the world and here locally. But I want this space to be more than that.

At my core, I’ve always been a curious person. Just ask my mom she’ll tell you that in between our daily viewings of Tarzan and the Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Reunion Concert (which my grandpa recorded for me on VHS), I would bombard her with nonstop questions.

What is that?

What does it do?

Why do we even do this?

Why am I here?

What is any of this, really?

You know the usual existential preschooler stuff.

That same relentless curiosity is still very much alive. It just shows up in different ways now. There are so many things I care deeply about, and just as many things I do not fully understand. I have found that the older I get, the more I crave that understanding. From that foundation, I can build ideas, opinions, and beliefs, but it always starts with learning.

So what will this blog become? Truthfully, I do not know yet.

There will be days when I have a lot to say, and days when I do not. Some posts might be reflections on things I love, new experiences, joyful moments, and stories from my life. Others might be about the things I struggle with, the questions that keep me up at night, the issues I cannot quite wrap my head around, and the stuff that forces me to pause and reflect.

I do not claim to have all the answers. Honestly, I do not think many things in life are fully knowable. But I have come to understand this much. I am curious. Deeply. I always have been. I want to learn, to understand, and to ask better questions, even when the answers are messy or out of reach.

If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you reading, now let’s have some fun and see where this takes us.