What do you think ..

For my work, I use social media as my modern humanities lab. It’s a front-row view into the minds and perspectives of others. On a personal level, it’s also my archive, a living record of thoughts, experiences, and feelings over time. I grew up on social media. I was a social media teen, navigating new formats as they appeared, learning how to express myself and connect with my peers as the internet kept shifting beneath us. That alone built a skill set. An intuitive understanding of how to meet people where they are, how to communicate differently depending on the platform, the moment, the mood. It taught me how to take in a lot, and learn a lot, from real people in a not-so-real place (the internet lol).That same access exists in my work now, just on a wider scale. Social media gives me the ability to observe, to listen, and then to use what I notice to create spaces where people can reflect, express, and grow authentically. Over time, it’s become clear that the need to be heard is often much bigger than the need for advice.As a space creator, that distinction matters. Whether I’m holding a community discussion, a journal club, a book club, or a retreat, my role is less about directing and more about setting the foundation. Creating an environment where people feel at ease, curious, and safe enough to show up as they are. Where the experience itself feels thoughtful and fun, not performative or forced.Personally, I enjoy using social media to document experiences. There was a period when engagement was the goal, when sharing was about being relatable, about reaching outward. As I grew out of that desire, I naturally returned to documenting again. Posting as a way to mark moments, not measure them. Ironically, that’s the very thing that brought the engagement.

Make sure you don’t get addicted to it.I think the healing process is also the self-discovery process. We get to create new self-concepts, redesign our lives, try things on, experiment with who we’re becoming. There’s something exciting and empowering about that, but it can also become addictive. Constantly looking for the next thing to work on or the next realization or the next layer to heal. At some point, though, you have to stop healing and start living.We can mentally unlearn a lot. We can understand our patterns, name our wounds, rewrite the story in our heads, but to actually rewire something, to let it settle into the body and the nervous system, requires lived experience or proof essentially. For example, if you’ve only had bad friendships in your life, simply believing that better ones exist isn’t enough to change your reality. That belief might open the door, but it won’t walk you through it. Going out into the world and applying what you’ve learned about friendships just might. It’s how you meet the person who becomes a best friend.So take what you’ve learned and go live it. Go outside. Go experience. Go live.

My friend Mahogany gave me Toni Morrison’s Sula. The writing is so beautiful. I get why she wanted me to read it.