Evan Xu

a week after graduation

001

Heyo!

This is the first entry into my 52 week newsletter project.

Just this past week I saw some of my closest friends graduate from college --- and in 52 weeks, I will be doing the same.

Now that I’m home for the summer, I’m committing to this small weekly project for a few reasons:

  1. I want to document my life in a way outside of just my photo roll on my phone --- to give some insight into what I’m thinking about these days and cultivate a habit where I create something consistently and don’t just spend my summer rotting away on my phone.
  2. I want a way to keep in touch with friends that I don’t see as often, to give people life updates as a starting point for some connection.
  3. I’ve seen others create newsletters and blogs like this, and I really enjoy them. It’s kind of just one step above a Twitter page or an Instagram feed.
  4. I have been telling myself that I want to write and create something valuable for a long time now. It’s been a long time since I’ve made something just for the sake of making it.

something i’ve been thinking about a lot

just starting.

In a very relevant fashion, I’ve been thinking about all the content that has the theme around “just do it” or “just start”.

One video that’s been stuck in my head has been this instagram reel by @ethan.uncurated on Instagram.

The video really made me think about how I’ve been using consumption as an excuse to never make anything myself. I always manage to convince myself that I need to just read another book or watch another video “to make sure I get it right”. When in reality, creation is a process of flow, and the start of the process is just the making, not researching to get it right the first time. (in fact, I had to watch Ali Abdaal’s video about starting a newsletter to convince myself that I was doing it right.)

Here’s something I saw someone share on instagram that has also been stuck in my head:

pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing, and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviors

so not it’s like ‘the point of doing them is to get good at them’ and not ‘this is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hives’.

@sonateharder on Tumblr

One last idea:

“That’s what people think: ‘just because I like it, that doesn’t give it any value. As an artist, if you like it, that’s all of the value. ” Rick Rubin

something i’m reading

I have so many books checked out from the library right now. I always worry that reading won’t have the ROI because it’s such an introverted activity that I feel like a hermit during the summer when I really should be connecting with others. But now, I’m a little be more enthusiastic about cultivating my thinking through my writing…

Expect some more thoughts in the year to come. Thanks for coming along!

Evan