Here’s the thing: This is the last scheduled post in this Not Tweets series. When I first came up with this exercise, I wanted an outlet for my thoughts which would replace my daily — at least — habit of sending Tweets. I also wanted some guardrails for how long this would last, so I came up with what I thought was a sufficient targeted number of posts, repurposing original Soundgarden song titles for the titles of each of these entries. Some nights, that worked better than others. And tonight is one of those others.
I don’t really have a good tie-in for tonight’s title. In fact, I don’t really have a great topic for tonight. Some days were like that. And I think that’s a pretty good way to bring these posts to a close. Because throughout it all, life has gone on, and I’ve gotten to settle in each evening and try to make a little sense of whatever thoughts have bounced around in my head during the day. The fact that today was so historically consequential at the same time as it felt so mundane is actually a pretty great snapshot of how I’ve been feeling since I started these in November.
Some days, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about, jotting ideas in my notebook between meetings or during dog walks or even as I misheard a song lyric. Other days, I was simply too overwhelmed with breaking news to have anything other than rambling tumbleweeds cascading around in my head. But every weeknight, I sat here for a few moments, honing fractions of ideas into whole sentences, helping to cement a snapshot of me and my brain on any given day. Through it all, the unexpected kept happening. And the fact that I kept these up through it all is honestly what I’m proudest of.
You see, I love a routine. I rely on them. Patterns and systems and habits help calm me. Otherwise, my anxieties can get the best of me. Just the burden of putting down these words every night worked to soothe the unease of not being able to Tweet each and every thought in my head. But in a world where we’re having to reuse, and almost redefine, the word “unprecedented” almost every day, I fell back on routine as a way to keep calm, and carry on.
When I started these I was angry that a business made a business decision that I wish it hadn’t. In January, when Google announced thousands of layoffs, including my own, I was angry that a business made a business decision that I wish it hadn’t. What these posts have helped me realize, though, are a few ideas I want to capture form my future self:
1) No company should be worth more to you than you do to yourself. 2) No matter how prepared you think you are for something, you are never going to be prepared for everything, so just relax a bit. 3) No one knows what you’re going through, and you’ll never know everything someone else is going through, so give them a break.
I’m sure there are more reminders that would be helpful in the future, but I think these are a good place to stop. I love writing. I don’t love editing. I could keep writing for another hour, I’m sure. But great writing is essentially good editing. I don’t think anything in the Not Tweets collection could be called great, but there are nuggets there I’d love to revisit. And edit. And try to get them to great. So, while this is the end of Not Tweets, I hope you’ll see a more polished version of something which started here in another form in the future. Until then, thank you for allowing this experiment to go on for more than four months. And thanks for reading this, or any of these, posts. I ended each of them with the same question, “See you tomorrow?” I can tell you now, I definitely will not see you here tomorrow. But I hope to see you soon. Maybe on Mastodon?
Kristi
04 April 2023
Empty state.
Here’s the thing: This is the last scheduled post in this Not Tweets series. When I first came up with this exercise, I wanted an outlet for my thoughts which would replace my daily — at least — habit of sending Tweets. I also wanted some guardrails for how long this would last, so I came up with what I thought was a sufficient targeted number of posts, repurposing original Soundgarden song titles for the titles of each of these entries. Some nights, that worked better than others. And tonight is one of those others.
I don’t really have a good tie-in for tonight’s title. In fact, I don’t really have a great topic for tonight. Some days were like that. And I think that’s a pretty good way to bring these posts to a close. Because throughout it all, life has gone on, and I’ve gotten to settle in each evening and try to make a little sense of whatever thoughts have bounced around in my head during the day. The fact that today was so historically consequential at the same time as it felt so mundane is actually a pretty great snapshot of how I’ve been feeling since I started these in November.
Some days, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about, jotting ideas in my notebook between meetings or during dog walks or even as I misheard a song lyric. Other days, I was simply too overwhelmed with breaking news to have anything other than rambling tumbleweeds cascading around in my head. But every weeknight, I sat here for a few moments, honing fractions of ideas into whole sentences, helping to cement a snapshot of me and my brain on any given day. Through it all, the unexpected kept happening. And the fact that I kept these up through it all is honestly what I’m proudest of.
You see, I love a routine. I rely on them. Patterns and systems and habits help calm me. Otherwise, my anxieties can get the best of me. Just the burden of putting down these words every night worked to soothe the unease of not being able to Tweet each and every thought in my head. But in a world where we’re having to reuse, and almost redefine, the word “unprecedented” almost every day, I fell back on routine as a way to keep calm, and carry on.
When I started these I was angry that a business made a business decision that I wish it hadn’t. In January, when Google announced thousands of layoffs, including my own, I was angry that a business made a business decision that I wish it hadn’t. What these posts have helped me realize, though, are a few ideas I want to capture form my future self:
1) No company should be worth more to you than you do to yourself.
2) No matter how prepared you think you are for something, you are never going to be prepared for everything, so just relax a bit.
3) No one knows what you’re going through, and you’ll never know everything someone else is going through, so give them a break.
I’m sure there are more reminders that would be helpful in the future, but I think these are a good place to stop. I love writing. I don’t love editing. I could keep writing for another hour, I’m sure. But great writing is essentially good editing. I don’t think anything in the Not Tweets collection could be called great, but there are nuggets there I’d love to revisit. And edit. And try to get them to great. So, while this is the end of Not Tweets, I hope you’ll see a more polished version of something which started here in another form in the future. Until then, thank you for allowing this experiment to go on for more than four months. And thanks for reading this, or any of these, posts. I ended each of them with the same question, “See you tomorrow?” I can tell you now, I definitely will not see you here tomorrow. But I hope to see you soon. Maybe on Mastodon?