Lonely is the muse | Stream of Consciousness

Written on 12/31/25

As we enter my favorite holiday, New Year’s Day, I can’t help but fall into the annual bout of deep introspection — rehashing all of the former goals and thinking ahead to what I want the next year to look like. I’ve always viewed the New Year as a time of reinvention and rebirth. I have a laundry list of goals that I want to accomplish, one being launching this platform, so we’re already off to a good start. However, when I picture myself over the next 365 days, I don’t imagine being constantly amongst other people. There are so many cliches around circles getting smaller when chasing your dreams, but being a cliche doesn’t make it untrue. Making the seemingly unattainable possible means sacrificing much of the routine I’ve grown accustomed to. We dedicate so much of our lives to making large companies more infamous. What if we pivoted our priorities and used our creative genius to establish our empires? Your future self will thank you for enduring the lonely path.

Most creative ideas never make it out to the world, not from a lack of talent but usually a lack of consistent effort. As someone burdened with perfectionism, I’ve kept award-winning ideas in the drafts simply because I didn’t have the resources to make them as perfect in real life as it was in my head. But the result ended up being the same. The idea was still recurring in my dreams because I was too fearful to make it public. My intention for this year is to stop letting my desire for perfection prevent me from debuting my creative projects. I have a certain standard for output, so I’ll never attach my name to something I’m not proud of, but it’s ok if it doesn’t have the polish of an A24 production. One day, my production level will transcend those of legacy publications. Until then, it will be good enough to share with my burgeoning audience. 

As I enter this more isolated period of creative commitment, I hope this encourages you to get your ideas out of your notebook and into the ether. The world needs your creative genius. You’re a muse for millions; they don’t know it yet.

Welcome to AZOEIA. I hope you decide to stay awhile.