Welcome Back, Conversation Starters

Hi CS Cuties. It’s been a minute since I’ve been on here, in a long form capacity. After a wee hiatus, I have decided to come back to Substack because I’ve missed the community! And mostly (read: selfishly) I’ve missed writing. It’s been months that I’ve gone without writing beyond captions, emails, *blurbs* and it’s been weighing on me more than I imagined it would.

And yes, I know Substack isn’t the only place I can write but it was my main outlet for it, and the place I felt most comfortable finding that balance between proper journalist contributions (like my work in Refinery29) and a version of my journal that echoes our DMs, group chats and the casual cultural conversation online.

The time away followed a mood I found myself in after writing for days and weeks and months on here, to what felt like no avail, i.e., no significant growth, no excitement around the content; a feeling like I was just going through the motions.

I loved writing my daily Conversation Starters and elaborating on the social series format. I loved sharing more deep dive contributions when the discourse was piping. But somewhere along the way it began to feel more like a chore than a pleasure. And that was on me to acknowledge and reflect.

So I left.

Looking back, I was admittedly discouraged by the hordes of AI-led content, not feeling as though I was providing enough value amidst a sea of rinse and repeat articles calling out the same “tips & tricks” on how to make six-figures on the platform. And it led to an overall sense that I was “failing” at the platform, despite my best efforts.

So I stopped but it was lingering in the back of my mind. And I asked myself: What if time spent on this platform was just for me? For the hobby?

That notion is exactly what has my butt in this seat, writing this note to you today. I’m returning because the time away made me realize that I want to be here for the sheer pleasure of it. The consistent creativity that writing as a daily, weekly, monthly practice brings me, and also because I enjoy it, and I miss doing it.

Over on IG and TT, I recently began a new social series: Conversation Starters For The Day, hosting 1:1 interviews with my friends, cool cultural folks and people I’m fans of. It was created out of pure passion; an idea I’ve been sitting on for a long time and I decided to finally execute on. It’s been so fun returning to that feeling of The Try. And if I’m being honest, building Conversation Starters went so zero to 100 in the last year that I low key forgot that feeling. Grateful for the journey, but have been craving a return to my “Why” more and more these days.

So it’s been nice to get that spark back. It’s a spark I want to extend to the writing I do here. And hold myself to the joy that writing on Substack brings and less focus on the metrics, the money, and approaching it as something I have to do vs. something I genuinely want to.

So what does it look like to write over here, simply for the joy of it?

Let’s find out. Welcome back, Conversation Starters.