People who don’t write or garden must spend a lot of money on therapy.
For the last year, I’ve wanted to finish up the last of my bachelor’s degree, and start pursuing a master’s degree. Why traditional education? Because I want to teach unconventionally within a conventional place. I want to support that handful of people who *get it.* The freedom fighters. The seekers.
But it’s been a battle. MAT or MFA? High schoolers or college students? Politics with parents or politics with everyone else? But oh, to focus on writing. And to share it with others!
It won’t be the only way I work with others, but I do think it adds a layer of community involvement that I can’t replicate in any other way. Being a contributing part of where you are is crucial.
Recently, I was speaking with someone who admitted he thought place was “pointless.” I understand what he meant – that where you are from matters less than what you do. But to dismiss place and its effect on us, not to mention our effect on place.
I didn’t really value what I had growing up until I started traveling. During a nine-month stint in San Antonio, I was christened “Granola” because I wanted to recycle cardboard at the cafe I managed. On the other side of things, I met some of the most generous and loving people I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. But it didn’t take long to realize Texas was great to visit, but it’s not home.
Seattle is fun, like Portland, but the people are colder there.
Los Angeles has no soul.
Place is prophetic of who you’ll become. You can’t outrun your past. It’s why we have this idea of “coming home” in so many stories, but especially in songs. Music has a way of conveying a loneliness for place no other medium can touch.
Place can feel like something that happens to you. You are a result of your surroundings. But you also leave an imprint on those surroundings.
How? Simple. When you engage with your community, you change it for the better. You make an impact on kids lives. You plant trees the next generation will get to enjoy. You create a social fabric worth hanging on to, coming back to, and sharing.
Recent + Relevant Posts:
A big ask – and lots to give.
As some of you know, I’ve been staying at my mom’s since August. It’s helped me stabilize my finances some and keep up to date on all those lovely little pieces of debt I’ve been paying off while I was searching for a job. And if you’ve known me long, you know that staying there…
What happened. (Now leave me alone.)
Lately, I’ve been a little, um, emotional. Tapped out. Closer to fight or flight than I want to be. I kicked a foot-shaped dent into the side of some asshole’s Mini Cooper who tried to get me to get into his car. (I’m pro sex work/ers, but I’m real anti old white guys thinking everyone…
Fuck love and light.
Trigger warning: Woo woo bitches with no backbone taken to church below. I am very, very angry. I’ve been working online for the past 7+ years, and let me tell you, I never planned on being a marketer. Once upon a time, I just wrote. I shared the things I was learning in the hopes…
It took me 7 years to find sustainable success. How long will it take you?
I’ve been having a lot of great conversations with my colleagues about what it takes to be successful in business, especially around how long it takes. The common theme I’ve heard from people I respect and have watched grow alongside me is that it takes many of us 7 years. SEVEN YEARS?! I hear you…
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Dusti Arab, Fractional CMO
And the founder of the reinvention co, a marketing consultancy specializing in working with personality-driven companies with small teams.
Intense, fun, and relentlessly practical, Dusti understands the lives of small business owners are deeply intertwined with their businesses, and if their marketing is going to be sustainable, it can't get in the way of why they do what they do. (And honestly? It should be fun so they actually want to do it.)
She is the host of Referral Worthy, a podcast for small business owners ready to go from "best kept secret" to the go-to name in their niche.