Reclaim, Revisit, Retire
I quietly re-launched Originally Remixed in spring of this year.
(Would it even be considered a relaunch if the current content differs entirely from previous content?)
Originally Remixed started as a “lifestyle blog” in the 2010s; I wanted to write again, but I didn’t want to share too much of my personal life. Fashion, style, and travel were my sanitized front for this. Truthfully, I wanted to revisit my blogging experience in the early 2000s, a pivotal turning point in social media, community, and technology.
I loved how we made little corners of the internet our own back then—showing bits of our personality through our doing-the-best-we-can-with-Photoshop.4.0 graphics and crudely coded sites, collectively making it cool to be “boring” by giving a glimpse of your everyday life through written word. I met one of my dearest in-real-life friends through blogging. Back then, there was this organic connection and genuine interaction among my fellow bloggers, bonding through our young adult-hood troubles; I don’t miss the troubles, but I miss the feeling from the connection.
I don’t have any old entries or versions of my blog. And I’m ok with that.
But recently, I’ve had so many meaningful moments involving reconnecting with people over the past few weeks.
During one outing this past week, we poured over throwback photos. We giggled about sooooo much sweat and sooooo many good times at Grits n’ Biscuits, a party exclusively dedicated to Southern hip-hop music. I heard stories about “praying for the turn-up” in the dingy Delancey Street McDonalds. All of this was several lifetimes ago and fun to think about. We’re different now, but not so much. Then I switch gears to think about our many different iterations, who we currently are, and how to have fun and come together with our current versions. But mainly, I observe and am happy to see that we’re all thriving in different ways. It’s exciting.
A few weeks ago, at a “dinner with strangers” (aka the Timeleft experience), I shared about my life and how something I genuinely enjoy is balcony redesign. I was met with enthusiasm and encouragement. At another dinner with colleagues, I mentioned balcony redesign again, this time with a dash of desire to try rooftop redesign. There was more enthusiasm all around.
This idea should be something I revisit.
Finally, here I am, revisiting blogging for the umpteenth time. Because it’s free and it’s freeing. And I missed the creativity and expression, which keeps all my wheels turning.
Trying my hand at AI art… the featured image created with the help of DALL-E.
