A Promise to Myself- 52 Weeks on Substack
Community and lifting each other up
My biggest take away from writing for 52 weeks on Substack is this:
Sometimes dreams come true.
A funny thing happens when you make and keep a promise to yourself, you do the work. I’m not going to tell you I had a strategy when I started writing, I didn’t. I just showed up and started. And then I looked for other writers.
I have been craving community, I wanted to be around as many creatives as I could and this space provided that. I found a home here. Heart on sleeve and relentlessly hopeful. I showed up ready to pour into others what I was pouring into myself.
And now here I am, a year later having found a group of people who I believe are lifelong friends now. We lift each other up, cheer each other on, and support each other through so much. Helping each other grow.
What’s been created here is a beautiful thing.
I often am asked how I do it. My answer is the same every time- show up and find your community. I genuinely care about others. I love reading all of the words of everyone I follow. I love discovering new work. I love learning from everyone. I am a better writer because I’ve become a better reader and better connector.
Cheers to 52 weeks 🥳 Here’s to many more ❤️
Writerly Things that I’m excited for:
The Subject Tonight is Love (with Liz Gilbert)
5 Months to Memoir (with Kristen McGuiness)
Writing in the Dark School (with Jeannine Ouellette and Billie Oh)
Tell me friends- what are you excited for? What are you doing that lights you up? Please share your thoughts with me!
Thank you always for being here and reading my words and reaching out to me. I hope you’re all taking great care. Big love to you!
Oh Mesa, I could not be in more awe of you, both as a person and as a writer. You not only show up for yourself (a monumental feat), but you show up big time for your community. You continue to alchemize the enormous challenges you faced growing up and in early adulthood into the most beautiful expression of love and support.
You've given hundreds, more likely thousands, of people reasons to stay when it feels like there's every reason not to. In your work and in your life you've shown others that joy is possible after loss and lives can be rebuilt. We are forever changed by grief, right down to our DNA, but that doesn't have to eclipse hope for a better future. You inspire me, and so many others, to do better for ourselves and our fellow writers.
Tomorrow, your second Tiny Love story will be published in the New York Times, which despite the name, is a BIG freaking deal! I am thrilled you will be working intensely on your memoir for the next 5 months and I cannot wait to see, and celebrate, all your future accomplishments. This is just the beginning, and I'm grateful to have a front row seat to see you take off and soar. 🥰🥰🥰😍😍😍❤️❤️❤️
This is worth celebrating Mesa! At 47 weeks in a row, I am not far behind you. There are so many things in this life I have to drag myself to do—but not the writing I do here on Substack. That is a joy, a ride, a wonder…every time. I find myself swept along in this great human tide of extraordinary writing here on Substack. Like you, Mesa. Let’s keep going, shall we?