Fresh Look

Summer, 2026

The summer solstice embodies the beginning of the most abundant time of the year, and the end of the Spring's many firsts and beginnings.

This year it also coincides with the first installment of a new schedule I plan to follow for sharing my life and my art. I have spent the Winter and Spring stockpiling and organizing all of my writing, constructing this new website, and thinking about what it is I want to get out of blogging, or otherwise sharing my work online. And through those quiet, cool weather activities I have settled on this set of desires: four major updates per year, one as each season begins, with summaries of new developments in my life, creative projects finished and ongoing, and any topics seizing my mind at the time; as well as an annual podcast, a recording of a conversation with the people closest to me. I anticipate continuing to do small updates whenever the urge strikes me, likely in the form of movie and book reviews, or select poems I've read or written, which will be found in boxes on the right side of this page (only on desktop for now, so pls check it out on your computer to see all of my hardwork!).

There is a lot to be done, but it's taken a lot to get here too. Thank you for checking out my site, and keep reading if you're interested in more updates from my life! If this is as far as you're reading now, I'll try to get you back here in the Fall where I'll have a mailing list, working catalogs of all my work, and a guestbook to sign!

A new site! And how it came to be!

I submitted my first short story to the Stevens writing contest in the Spring of 2020, and immediately wanted to keep track of my writings in a way that allowed me to easily share them. I created a Wordpress website and posted “American Icarus,” the story which won me second place, and a Kindle Fire.

motivation at that time came from budding desires to be a writer. Whatever that meant, I wanted it. Whatever that meant, quickly came to mean writing for a very small audience (or no audience at all), while I continued to pursue the more traditional path I was already on. I continued writing poetry and prose semi consistently, running my university's political opinion section in the newspaper for a few semesters, and participating in a few poetry clubs. My catalog slowly grew over these past six years, bolstered by annual writing challenges each November, and Wordpress has been good enough!

Still, it probably is good enough! But through 6 years of updating and expanding my portfolio, I continue adding new skills, crafts, and mediums to my repertoire. And that desire to become a writer, whatever that meant, transformed into becoming a craftsperson, or an engineer, or an artist! Or any word, so long as I could express myself. So, naturally, the challenge of throwing away the pre-made templates and fine tuned file management systems became more and more enticing. After working in a cabinet shop became working in my own garage, and after mending holes became sewing bags and attempts at costumes, and after pictures on my phone became starting out with a digital camera, or riding my bike became reassembling and improving that bike; it only seems right that posting on my website can now become learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create and maintain that website on my own.

In my mind, this site update is another craft that felt necessary to learn, if only because I thought to try. At a time where new tools are marketed for their ability to do everything for us, I am proud to launch this site of 100% hand-drawn art and self-coded structures. And I am proud that these pages will change with the seasons and with my life! Although I've had great teachers and role models for every craft I've picked up, and no skill is learned in isolation, I am trying my best to emulate so-called self-taught, folk artists and trades people that have existed for all of time who see learning, and the imperfections that come with their 'final' products, as expression and art in themselves.

So… if you are continuing to read here, after I have come down from my soapbox, welcome!

At this moment I'm still working out how I want to organize the backend of my catalogs, for poetry, prose, photos or anything else, and so those sections are still under construction. Check back soon if you do want to take a look at any of those sections! I expect that the bulk of the formatting may continue to change, but I am happy with how it looks now, so I hope you enjoy! I began this process by looking through the amazing sites on neocities, and was really inspired by the user seafare's simple but care-filled style. From their site I was pointed towards sadgrlonline's layout builder where I was really able to get off the ground. Once I had a layout in the rough shape I wanted, it just took a few weeks of tweaking and re-tweaking, drawing and re-drawing. Feel free to look through the website's code if you'd like! It's all kept and updated via github. And if you are looking to build your own site, I can highly recommend sadgrlonline's free resource, and mozilla's developer tutorials. It is such a satisfying experience to create something that is truly bespoke and just how you were able to make it, and if you need help I would love to offer my extremely limited knowledge.

In addition to managing my posts, Wordpress hosted my site and acted as my domain's registrar. So to make my site really my own I had to find a new host and registrar. As my self imposed deadline of the summer solstice approached, this task became a bit more daunting everyday. I'm slowly learning about the architecture of the internet, but I am happy to defer to more knowledgeable people… so recommendations from a friend resulted in free hosting through vercel (vercel.com), and my domain remains with wordpress for the time being. I'm sure these will change and be included in the next update coming in Fall, when I will have figured out what I want out of these services. Hopefully.

Again due to the self-imposed deadline, you'll notice that this is the only active page on the site, while all other links take you to the “under construction” page. I want my catalogs of work to be presentable, and those parts of the site to be interactive. For now, this is just a blog post and a pretty facade… but in the Fall you'll get to see it all! If you want to check out my work to this point, my poetry and stories are still on wordpress here.

The same life! And how it has developed!

The website itself has taken a lot of thought and planning, but I am most excited for the avenues it will help me create to continue my writing. I've been intimidated by the casual and genuine world of blogging, so, as this homepage shows, I'm making it a focal point! I'm looking forward to becoming more comfortable writing about my life, and for how it will integrate with my journaling practice that already has its own rhythm. Each season's change will be accompanied with a longer form, more public (kind of) meditation. And that sounds like a good time to me. So, here it is, wading in to blogging.

When I've posted my website for the world to see I will have just returned from Chicago with my partner, visiting my sister for the first time since she moved (and since I moved, actually!). We had a great time hopping between a Chicago river architecture tour, cultural festivals, the sand and concrete beaches of Lake Michigan, and the friendly confines of Wrigley Field for my first Cubs game! Go Cubs. Sorry I could not eat 9 hot dogs, I wanted it to be fun and not painful. Still, I performed better than the visiting Blue Jays…

2026 so far has been more action packed than I would've anticipated. We've traveled between NYC, New Jersey, and Virginia pretty consistently for small celebrations and periodic visits to our families. We flew to Florida for a week on the Gulf in May. We took a little road trip to the finger lakes. And we've found time to make the most of New York; going to concerts and parks, art galleries and happy hours. All that has continued on at its whirlwind pace, and now we are fully switching to packing and moving mode, as we relocate to a new place in Astoria where it's just us.

I learned from rereading my journal entries every year that I often say, surprised, that the most recent time in my life has been the best time yet. It almost makes me feel like an unreliable narrator, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 2026 has only solidified that pattern; moving in with my partner, advancing at my first permanent job, living in New York in such an important time for the city, it's all so much more than I could have imagined a year ago. While I miss home from time to time, I have never felt more surrounded by love.

Creative updates! And where it will go next!

From my other writing practices I've been learning more and more that it is a muscle you have to keep active. With more recent focus on physical crafts, it has been difficult to write this update, especially in a format I've never really tried before. When Fall comes around, my only hope is that I'll be more comfortable writing in my blog. Well… I hope I'll have a raise at work, plenty of sewing projects and new woodworking to show off, and many other blessings. But I also hope I'll be more comfortable writing in my blog! And I'm extremely thankful for anyone who read this far!

My site will keep changing, and I will aim to make it more interactive, so I can really share my creations how I've envisioned it. But for now, this is it! See you in the Fall, when the leaves begin to fall and the sky turns that deep blue to signal the coming blanket of Winter.