#120: Happy 3rd Birthday, Respectful Smartass!

CELEBRATION & REFLECTION

This newsletter is officially three years old!

While I am skeptical of the artists calling their art their offspring metaphor, I can’t stop falling into it. I’m not claiming to be Mother, but in some ways Respectful Smartass feels like my baby. She’s toddling and tantruming and requiring new stewardship as she grows. Three was a difficult, teething year. Yes, I know three isn’t the teething year in human children but in newsletter children it is, so just go with it.

We’ve come a long way from her first and second birthdays. It feels like nothing has changed and everything has changed. I’m still practicing failure. (Read: I’m still failing.) I’m still creating without the constraint of publishing gatekeepers or SEO quotas. I’m still here, even if less frequently.

And yet, I’m less interested in churning out new work every week regardless of the quality. I learned that lesson. I proved to myself I could write consistently and often and without perfecting. Now, I want to focus on deeper work. Sometimes! But other times I still want to be messy and offhanded and silly and free. That’s the beauty of this space for me. It can be whatever I want it to be. And I’m committed to making it whatever I need it to be while also providing entertainment and value for all 638 of you.

Is there something in particular YOU want this newsletter to be? Is there, by some cosmic interference, something you even NEED it to be? I can’t promise I’ll deliver, but I’m dying to know.

However you found me and for whatever reason you’re sticking around, I’m grateful. Thank you for coming along for the ride in all its twists and turns, typos and titillations. I am very glad you’re here.

With that said, our publishing schedule is changing. Free Friday editions will now go out fortnightly (every other Friday), and paid subscribers will get an extra post once a month. Basically, I need to do less. I think the work will be better for it. Plus I love it when you miss me.

If you’re new or you’d just like to reminisce, check out the top three (plus four) posts from year three:

#94: A 10-Step Guide to One People Pleaser’s Inability to Say No

#96: 6 Gazes That Deserve Your Hotness More Than the Male One

#97: Thanks, Mom!

#100: In Defense of the Fabled Fib

#111: The 12 Steps of Algoholics Anonymous

#115: Another Poem Because I Feel Like It

#118: A Gray Day in New York

Here’s to year four! May it be the most respectful and smartassy yet.

ily bye,

Ariana