Guess who forgot they had Substack?

It's me. Hi. I'm the problem it's me.

I’m hopeless - the first chance I get to throw in a Taylor Swift lyric, I shamelessly grab it and put it in the subtitle. I had all this great comeback intro about my return and the last minute, I decide to just do this instead. *drags drafted intro to the trash bin* Anyway…

Hi. You’re probably wondering why you’re getting an e-mail or a notification from me. To help jog your memory: this is a newsletter I decided to create in November of 2022 back when I was unemployed and wanted to get back into writing - if you want to reread that, here’s the link. Since then (and up until June 2023), you probably subscribed… and then, well, silence. Not that I expected you to sit around eagerly awaiting a newsletter from me. If this were a house, it’d be a haunted one by now, covered in cobwebs and mold from neglect.

I’m coming clean and confessing that title is a lie. I never really forgot about it. I even had the app on my phone but I just wasn’t in the proper headspace and felt like I never was since my last post. It was a very emotional one and part of me found it difficult to follow it. That, and also because I mentioned in my first post that I didn’t want to pressure myself on the frequency of updates for this so it won’t feel like a chore, I never bothered reminding myself to write new posts. But also, everything was crazy the past two years I barely even used a planner. I did attempt to come back in three separate occasions, but in true ADHD fashion, I didn’t write those down or put a reminder for myself to see it through. Or well… I did write them down but kept moving them. Until lo and behold, it’s 2025. :) How lovely.

It’s a bit crazy I felt I wanted to come back at a time when a lot of people are flocking here to monetize their writing. I knew from the get-go that Substack was mainly a publication with paid subscriptions but I never expected even some of the content creators I follow to start their own now while I abandoned mine. And then you have me… dusting off my corner of the internet to… ramble about life. Feels on-brand, honestly.

That’s basically it - I just wanted to say I’m back. This year, I’d like to be more intentional about writing here. I would like to say that I just want to keep myself busy and this gives me the chance to exercise my brain but in reality, I just felt this yearning to write - same as I did back when I started this. So here I am. As with all the personal projects and hobbies I’ve started, I hope I can keep this up.

And now we come to my favorite part…

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Rae’s Currently List

• Watching: Severance. Finally started after letting it sit in my watchlist forever. I’m hooked!

• Reading: I haven’t started anything yet. I’m planning to get back into reading this year. I will let you know in my next letter what I decided on.

• Thinking about: the ube crinkle cookies I made. I’m going to go grab another one once I hit post.

• Listening to: my Lauver playlist: currently playing as I finish this is While You Were Sleeping

• Hyperfocusing on: finalizing my goals for my first 12-Week Year in 2025

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This currently list is never going away, btw. :) That’s it for now - I’m saving the “catch-up recap” for the next letter (or two).

Do-do-dooing my night away (please listen to Laufey’s Dance With You Tonight so this closing doesn’t seem weird),

Rae