Slow is Fast, and Guess I’m Slowin Down…

It’s been a weird year. But don’t we say that every year? Each one has its own oddities, kinks, highs, lows, until it sits in the rearview mirror with all the fine details passing in time.

I moved to Richmond, VA, around this time last year while I was finishing up my BA in Anthropology at George Mason. I was… cautiously optimistic. Moving to Richmond was never my Plan A, in my head I was going to graduate in Spring 2023, not Fall 2023, and when my lease was up in November I would already have some job, opportunity, grad school, lined up in the PNW – a place I’ve never been except thru the eyes of others. Needless to say, that didn’t work out, but maybe for the best. 

It’s been a year of self-discovery. I’ve gotten more secure in doing the activities I love like backpacking and paddling while dipping my toes into climbing and cycling. A true jack(son) of all trades, master of none. Earlier this year, my Ma handed me down a Nikon D5300 she had never quite gotten into using, which has turned me on to the wonderful world of photography. I had always been interested, but was never quite willing to commit the investment. As a kid, I remember vividly running around a wedding reception with a digital point and shoot, finding it made me conceptualize the space I was in differently. In the same way now, photography has given me a new way of thinking about and experiencing the activities I love and just day to day life.

I’ve always been an anxious person that likes to do things quickly or not at all. It’s not a lack of patience, but I think an internal fear the longer something takes, the more time there is for something to go wrong. I think that’s maybe the key lesson I’ve learned this year – slowing down counterintuitively enables me to do more things than I would’ve otherwise, and I get to spend more time with these activities. Photography forces me to slow down, to find the perfect composition, wait for that cloud to move, see how the sun looks in a minute. In a similar vein, writing makes me slow down, to let my words catch up to my thoughts.

I think quicker than my mouth – I often find speaking and writing more a translation of my thoughts than a direct 1:1 representation of them. Writing, at least, makes me think deliberately about each word, and lets me edit without anyone being the wiser. I guess my interest in starting a blog makes sense, then.

Nominally, this is supposed to be a platform for my photography, travel stories, the occasional related essay, and general life updates. That aside, I’m sure I’ll have some out-of-left field postings about niche hot takes on the modern world and snare tones. One interest I haven’t mentioned yet is my love of music – I grew up a drummer, some of my earliest memories are listening to a CD rotation of The Beatles’ Revolver, A Beach Boys compilation album, a David Bowie compilation album, and The Killers’ Hot Fuss. Music is a companion in everything I do

This is a general primer on me as a person, but since I started talking about this year, I’ll end the same way while looking to next year. I’ve gotten out to some cool places this year, from camping on the beaches of Hatteras to hiking in the Adirondacks High Peaks. I’ve gone out all across Virginia backpacking and camping, figuring the best adventure is the one right in your own backyard. I’ve gotten into packrafting, and have visions of longer trips in 2025. When I haven’t been out of town gallivanting, I’ve been hammocking on Belle Isle, cycling the Cap Trail, and single-handedly keeping North End Juice Co in business.

Funding this, I’ve been working at REI. I transferred from the Fairfax store, which I started at thinking it’d just be a college job. The REI wormhole is real, though – great people, great deals, and good enough for retail pay, it’s not a half bad gig for somebody who had illusions graduating in Anthropology would lead to a job straight out of college. While my thoughts and opinions here are mine alone, I’ll definitely draw from my experience being an outfitter there. I’ve applied for William & Mary’s American Studies MA program, with my ideal path being into academia alongside freelance cultural writing and photography. Whether I get in remains to be seen, but I have my plans B, C, D, and Etc regardless. 

I’ve wanted to start a blog for a long while, but some variant of anxiety and imposter syndrome has always held me back. I think I felt that I had to have some illustrious resume to warrant littering the internet with my stories and thoughts. People don’t start off experienced, though. It gets back to this need to either do things quickly or not at all. Time and experience can’t be rushed, but that’s not a reason to not start. If the past year has been filled with preparation and learning, this coming year is going to be a year of starts, starting now. Thanks for joining me here.