For so long, I didn’t create things on a consistent basis.

All I did was look at other stuff and get frustrated with how bad it was.

Bad music, bad Instagram posts, bad YouTube videos. You name it, I judged it.

I even judged other people for liking it. “Why does this person have so many followers?”

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It's funny to book a round-trip ticket to home.

I'm home, temporarily, then going back...home. Back to the place where I've spent the last three months and will spend the next couple. What is home, anyway?

But for now, I'm on vacation (sort of) at home (sort of). And like travel often does, it's bringing up different thoughts, feelings, and experiences than the ones I've been having. Out of my daily life, I'm seeing things from a new perspective.

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As a child, I would read anything I could get my hands on.

At least, I would try. I had a small collection of classics that had been gifted to me, novels from Wuthering Heights to Dune, but I didn't get past the first page of a number of them.

My sole consideration in deciding whether to continue reading was, "Does this grab me right away?" If it didn't, I didn't.

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TThe Internet has made it possible to voyeuristically peer into the virtual shop windows of businesses.

Like insecure teenagers, it's all too easy to get our composure rattled by someone else's polished and perfected web presence.

Wandering around in search of inspiration too often results in demoralization instead. Of course, we already know that however attractive and successful a person may seem, that is only part of the story. They have failures and frustrations just like we do.

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I have an Akimbo friend who worries about being original.

He is hesitant even to repeat and build on ideas he's heard elsewhere. He’s afraid to publish, lest he rip someone off.

I can empathize. Sometimes, it might feel like we have nothing to add to someone else's brilliant work — we have the sense that we're cheapening it instead of elevating it.

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