I read something today from a band I grew up with about finding the joy in your creativity again — that inner child, the music you grew up with, and finding the thrill of it all.

Four years ago I was just a fresh-faced naive college graduate who packed her car and her dreams and left home to chase something — the music, the writing, something to challenge her, force her to grow up, get out of her small town and flourish into somebody.

I didn’t know how or what it would look like, but I knew I craved the thrill of it all.

I chased show after show and wrote about it, because I was alone in a city I knew no one and it was the one thing that brought me peace, meaning, and a sense of belonging and purpose.

I played my guitar with no aim except for that I loved it, and it was the one mode of expression I felt most free and connected.

We all ought to pay it back to our inner children. The more we grow up, the more jaded we become chasing false dreams, things we thought we knew, and feeling like we have to grow up with the rest of the world.

So be a teenager again. Live your life, surround yourself with the things and the ones you love, and love how you live it. When you do that, I feel like you’re really coming from a place of love — for yourself, for others, for your life.

🤍 

Thank you Timo Sumida for capturing these photos of me from one magical time ago.

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