Hi my friends!
Hope your weeks are going well :)
I’m writing to say that I’ll be taking a couple weeks off (I am working for a bigger piece for a cool publication !! Yay). But I thought this was a good moment to check in.
Something worth noting is that there are (just shy of!!) one THOUSAND of you! Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds! To me, it feels like billions. Isn’t that wild?? It is to me! When I started this (only 8 months ago), it was so deeply uncomfortable and vulnerable. And it also felt very right and necessary, even if no one was to read it at all. In all honesty, it still feels vulnerable! But perhaps that’s how it should be.
I approach this project as a cook by trade, someone who has tried to show my value through work, rather than tell. The truth is: I experience something of a psychic discomfort in establishing myself as a *brand*. Which is why whenever I think that my Substack comes into the (consentual!) inbox of this many people, I struggle to believe it.
It sounds like I’m being humble, but I’m actually not— in fact, I think the work is cool and has only gotten better J but no matter what I think, I want to thank you.
I started out this project because I was working on a book proposal. And I still am, but boy oh boy it is reallllyyyyy a tiny grape on the vine! And it’s winter season, so harvest won’t be for a bit. I begin for real here; slowly, intentionally, and with tender hopes of abundance.
My goals? To grow more! To write for more places. To learn more psycho-social theory. To cook enough, in a way that feels particularly pretty and/or nourishing to people. To be more ambitious, specific, polished, and piercing. To not let fear get in the way. And to resist my urge to have typos be my special little trademark.
Plus this is a literal party and you’re literally invited! I can only take in so much media every week lol. What do you want me to write about? What needs to be talked about? What am I missing? I am not playing around or feigning that interest; it’s actually necessary, I think, for me keep doing this.
My ask? That you enjoy and share. I hate saying that, but it is literally the way the internet works! The more subscriptions/ likes/ whatever, the more that I get to do. It’s totally free at the minute, so all that’s really at stake is my ego (lol). My job is to make it good enough to feel good about asking you doing that.
My hope is to keep building this into something stronger, more fun, more questioning, more zoomed out and zoomed in and ultimately DELICIOUS.
Lmk what you think! You can write me @ palatecleanse@substack.com . Insta @palate_cleanse
+I’m not really on Twitter hehe but tell me if you really think I should be. I am easily swayed.
Love you thank you!!! xx