The Changing Seasons🌲

Dear friend,

Hey, how’s it going? So I’ve been thinking about the changing of the seasons throughout this month. Not just in how we’re currently living in the hottest July in human-recorded history, but moreso in how seasons will always change no matter how we may feel about it.

From the eventual rise of streaming fatigue, to EVs’ pace to replace gas-powered vehicles, to generative AI basically gunning after all of our jobs, these changes are never-ending and happening faster than ever. It’s actually kind of scary if we were to piece together these “disruptions”, like how the world has become so unrecognizable from just a couple years ago. As much as I want to bury my head in the sand and cling on to my nostalgia, there is also this sense of “whelp, I better get used to this”.

In the movie Midsommar, one of the cult’s main belief is that a human life is divided into 4 seasons, each consist of 18 years (I’ll leave it to you to ponder what happens after reaching age 72). Not saying I’m a believer, but there is some meaning to view our life in the lense of seasons. My turning 41 this year will place me closer toward the outer edge of Summer, if not past it altogether.

So if Summer is slowly but surely winding down for me… what are the things I should leave behind, and what else shall I look forward to? As Autumn leaves fall to reserve energy, I too have deleted Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit in the past few months for one reason or another. Not all of these efforts were easy or even necessary really, but having gone without social media has made me overall less envious of others and more grateful to my present life.

But whereas I’m good at letting go and leaving things in the past, I’m actually pretty bad at planning for the future. A lot of what I do is reactive to the past or to prep for tomorrow at best, but the truth is I don’t really have a long term plan in the slightest. My boss’s been asking me to think, build, and present my 5-year vision, but I’m still struggling to find the proper corporate speak for “I have no fucking idea!”.

Ian and I took an impromptu trip to the Sequoia National Park this past Saturday, and it was breathtaking to see General Sherman, the biggest tree in the world. Estimated to be 2,300+ years old, General Sherman has surely seen some shit, though it’s probably just taking things one day at a time like the rest of us.

And then that night I was randomly listening to the Rosalía Essential playlist in Apple Music, and was pleasantly surprised I could understand a couple Spanish words here and there. Not too shabby from doing 5 minutes of Duolingo every night before bed. I supposed that’s as future thinking as I can get, especially since American music and culture is getting increasingly more Latin influenced these days. Estoy aquí para ello.

• The photos I took this month 📸
• What’s worth remembering in July 2023 📔

Please share this newsletter if you think other people can benefit from it! They can also subscribe to Dear Friend, or check out past issues directly here.

Love wins