Personal projects
I’ve always felt overwhelmed by the idea of 'personal projects.' I guess it’s because I’ve never actually had one—or at least, that’s what I thought until I told Nieves about it back in January.
The first time someone mentioned personal projects to me was in college. I remember it. Before then, I’d never heard anyone talk about them. Sure, people talked about hobbies, interests, or ways to spend time, but those felt and feel much lighter and fluid than the whole 'personal project' thing. So I spent four years—the length of my degree—searching for mine.
I started an account to post things I wrote or photos I took, but it felt forced, so I eventually gave up. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been one for doing things just to show them off—and that’s exactly what social media is for, or at least that’s how I see it. I think people who post good photos do so because they planned for them to be good so they could show them later. And that’s fine; I love seeing people’s good photos. But I don’t know how to make them 'good for others.' What I do, I do because it’s good to me.
After a while, I tried again. I started uploading videos of me singing and playing songs, but in time, I remembered why it didn't work for me.
So, no. I don’t have a profile where I post the places I go, the sports I play, the songs I sing, the notes I lose inside my phone, the t-shirts I’ve designed for myself, or how I try to make my cooking taste like my mother’s, or my grandmother’s, or people I don’t even remember but the flavor.
I don’t have any of that. But I do all of that. I go to places I love, I enjoy sports, I sing and play the songs I like in my room, I save texts in notebooks and phone, I design my own t-shirts because the ones I like in stores are cool but overpriced—so I make my own, cool and cheap, because own labor is free. And every day, I truly love cooking and remembering exactly how my grandmother would’ve done it.
One day, sitting on the sofas, I told Nieves. I told her that personal projects overwhelmed me. That it stressed me out because while everyone else knew how to build their personal projects, I only knew how to live. That there are so many, many things I love in life, but I don’t know how to showcase or monetize any of them—but for now, I have no interest in learning how.
She told me she really liked my personal project.
And this is a game I play while making coffee—just in case you’d like to play too.
Nowadays, everyone draws on their coffee.
And I love coffee.
But I can’t draw.
Not on paper, not digitally—not anywhere.
So, definitely not on coffee.
But if a swan or a heart is 'Classic Latte Art,'
then I call this 'Contemporary Latte Art.'
You play with it the same way you play with the clouds.