offline

For the first time in about 12 years (man, I feel old all of a sudden), I've spent the last month without ready access to the internet. Now obviously, back in 1996 I wasn't doing much online beyond using webcrawler to find dorky chat rooms, but regardless, I had access to those dorky chat rooms whenever I wanted.

This past month has been a struggle and has proved to me a few things, mainly how reliant I (and honestly, the world) have become on the internet - which is scary in it's own special way - but also how much creative energy I've wasted online. I'm not at all saying that I don't love the internet as a source for creative inspiration, not in the least, but in the past year or two I've really begun to notice how all of that accumulative time online has really started to weigh me down.

I kind of stopped doing anything creative. Drawing. Writing. Taking photos. Nothing.

So while for the past month I've been pulling my hair out because I can't check what's new on design sponge at midnight, I've also been spending a lot of that time drawing. I've come to realize that when you don't have someone else's work to look at, you start to make your own again.

I will still undoubtedly throw myself on the floor kicking and screaming tonight because I won't be able to puruse etsy in the wee hours of the morning, but for now, I've found the beauty in my time offline.