We Should All Create More

A photo from the Cau Ferrat Museum in Sitges, Spain.

Hello family and friends. I am logging on here from my new apartment in San Lucas Tolíman, Guatemala. I have been here for almost two weeks as a Long Term Volunteer with the San Lucas Mission. Unfortunately, I have been cooped up the past couple days due to a small illness and have had a lot of time with my own thoughts. I thought a blog would be a fun way to keep my loved ones updated about what is going on in my life. AND just to get my own thoughts out of my head. I have been an avid journaler for the past four years and I thought it might be fun to go semi-public with these internal thoughts of mine.

This endeavor scares me a bit, but I'm trying not to talk myself out of it. For my first blog post, I want to take a moment to partly explain my motivation.

During my semester abroad in Barcelona, I visited a small museum in the seaside town of Sitges called the Cau Ferrat Museum. It displayed all the works of the artist Santiago Rusiñol such as paintings, sculptures, sketches, etc. I was fascinated by all of this as I had never been to a museum that so clearly displayed the life's work of a singular artist. I found it so powerful that this artist had much to show for the life that he had lived.

This visit led me to do some reflecting and I had a scary thought: 'Up to this point in my life, what tangible items do I have to show for the life I have lived?' Not much, I realized. This small epiphany urged me to really sit back and think about how much time I have spent in the consumption state of mind. Whether it be news articles, Instagram reels, YouTube videos, mindless podcasts, and Netflix series. I have spent a lot of my time consuming things other people have created. I haven't created much myself.

This realization eventually pushed me to take a painting class during my final semester at BC and take my guitar playing more seriously. There's a quote by Amy Poehler that I love and have up on my wall down here that I think applies pretty well: "I want to be around people that do things. I don't want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people that dream and support and do things."

Obviously, it's okay to scroll and consume and be curious about what other people are doing. But I also think creating is good and it's something I need to dedicate more time to. On that note, this blog is my attempt at CREATING more. I hope I can encourage you all to create more too. Thanks for listening, until next time.

<3 Elizabeth