Today marks the first day of the ninth month of the year two thousand and twenty-five.
So much has happened this year that it genuinely feels like it could’ve been a lifetime. In fact, I still find it hard to believe that everything that happened to me took less than six months.
I suppose accruing new experiences truly slows down time and makes everything feel worthwhile.
Since embarking on this path, I realized that writing would be a necessary part of my life. And as I continued studying the process of writing, I chose those I wanted to model myself after.
It was one of those writers whom I took his advice seriously.
Michael Lewis, in his interview with Berkely students, advised young writers to go out and gain a variety of experiences to have interesting material to write about. In other words, focus on writing and training your craft while gathering many interesting things to talk about.
Steve Jobs, in a similar manner for a different reason, also advised people to try different things and engage actively with the world, even suggesting things like “going to Paris and being a poet for a few years” or “falling in love with two people at once.”
But the key thing is that if you’re gonna make connections which are innovative… then you have to not have the same bag of experiences as everyone else does, or else you’re gonna make the same connections and then you won’t be innovative and then nobody will give an award.
Steve Jobs, Academy of Achievement, 1982
From henceforth, everything I am doing will be experiences that I can draw upon towards my creative endeavors— and I hope that they differ from others.
Fortunately, I know what I want to do and where I want to be.
And for a brief moment, I was stuck on knowing how to get there.
But the act of writing helped overcome this uneasiness, and I was able to pick myself up again.
This will continue to happen again and again as long as I continue to pursue my North Star.
So I must go out and accumulate new bags of experiences, drawing inspiration from anything that interests me, writing as much as I possibly can, and sharing it with many. Through it all, I’ll find friends who share similar interests and are working on the same things I am.
I have a path laid out ahead of me. I must continue walking that path for those who are here, and for those who are no longer here.
Go ahead, Jose. Start new projects; finish old ones. Fail twice to succeed once. Get rejected by multiple opportunities to get accepted into the one that will quicken your commitment. If I want something I’ve never had, I must be willing to do things I’ve never done.
Better to be content knowing I tried than to live with the discontent of never knowing.