A Decade Later

101 Reps and Still Figuring Things Out

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing.

Writing, that is.

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of this thing.

Created halfway through what was a sorta sabbatical gap year working and living in Berlin.

Its predecessor existed more as me emailing and messaging people individually with the things I came across and found interesting (and felt they would find interesting too).

It started on the platform TinyLetter which no longer exists. And I migrated to Substack in Fall of 2019, with one of my favourite all-time issues describing an experience while visiting Bucharest.

Around that time a colleague and now friend encouraged me to “ship it” monthly, which I went on to do for several years.

I have tried to quit and shut this thing down, only to return once again.

I think there’s some beauty in that idea. That at any moment I can choose to stop it, or go again.

Sometimes it’s hard to get out.

It takes energy and courage to publish most months, but once I find myself in the flow of it, it becomes contagious.

Almost like a train on the tracks, once it gets moving it has a momentum to it.

Writing has been a wonderful organizing principle in life.

It’s how I’ve come to process things.

Both the big and the small.

Early issues focused mainly on curation.

For example in that first issue I shared a re-design bottled water company I enjoy. Fast forward a decade later, who would have thought I’d end up visiting the alpine village of its production unrelated to that link I shared as often as I do.

Maybe it’s all connected.

In the middle years of publishing this, I felt the need to speak a bit more about health and some of the more personal elements of a journey through life.

That era served a time and place.

And from my lens, the last while has been more about interacting with the arts and place - whether art galleries or swimming in the sea or the latest film or book I am obsessed with.

A friend recommended I watch one of the Oscar nominee films, Train Dreams.

So I did this weekend and it’s a fitting moment I end this issue with its mention.

The film had everything that pulls me in.

I knew nothing about it before watching.

Early setting in Idaho (where friends live) and mentions of Spokane (where another friend is from) connected me to the place. The cinematography had me thinking I was in a painting myself - that natural forested, folk aesthetic I’ve shared in earlier issues. The score was an emotional counterpart to the drama. I even just put it on in the background as I attempt to write this celebratory issue in one go.

And the story, wow. Just one of those ones that you feel. One that leaves you thinking, questioning and imagining in the days that follow.

So here’s to Issue 101. Not technically one per month for 120 months, but pretty damn close.

After all these issues what have I learned?

I’d say that as long as I keep following my curiosity - watching, listening, reading, visiting, experiencing - I am good.

Thanks for reading,

Jamie

Young Forest Pine in Bloom, Morris Graves, 1947. Not directly related to the film but explored the Northwest School art movement from the time period and found this piece. I felt it connected well.