This year, I pivoted away from being a professional writer.
In 2021, I was paid a fair sum by a company to write every day. After 10 years of writing for pennies, it was cool to finally make some decent money writing.
It was a great experience, but I ultimately decided that traveling the world with the Big Damn Band seemed like a more rewarding way to spend my time.
I’ll always write, though, and feel like I put out some good stuff this year.
So, here are the best things I wrote in 2022.
There’s No Easy Cure to the Student Loan Debt Crisis
I kicked the year off with a bang, going deep on a pressing issue in America: the student loan debt crisis.
This was before President Biden decided to cancel $10,000 in student loans per borrower, which is now facing issues in court.
I wrote this article when I was still writing about finance and was constantly scouring the internet for important economic issues. After years of discussion, I felt that this issue was worth doing a deep dive on.
I played devil’s advocate and explored both sides — why it would be smart to take action and why it might cause some issues. I also presented some solutions that felt win-win.
Don’t Let Productivity Content Creators Make You Feel Bad
It’s hard to avoid hustle culture videos.
They’re all over the place. Everyone is making thousands of dollars with their side hustles! Why can’t we??
In this article, I highlighted a very successful YouTuber and explained why — as the kids say these days — he’s doing too much, and shouldn’t make you feel bad.
Racing Towards Retirement Is a Terrible Idea
Going hand-in-hand with hustle culture is FIRE — Financial Independence, Retire Early.
Working hard isn’t a bad thing. It is a very good thing.
But sacrificing decades of your life so you can spend your 50s, 60s, and beyond with nothing on the calendar doesn’t sound worth it to me.
Your Art Owes You Nothing
I knew way fewer people would care about my second book than they did my first book.
The first book took people by surprise. I didn’t tell anyone I was writing it so when I released it, people were shocked and super happy for me.
They didn’t care about the second book. It was par for the course; they already did their part in supporting the first book.
Despite expecting this outcome, it still hurt. The second book was way better — and no one even cared.
When it comes to art, though, we own very little of what we produce — and should be happy merely creating what we can.
To All the Lost Men Taking the ‘Red Pill’
When I was brokenhearted in 2020, I turned to some pretty gnarly stuff on YouTube.
What began as empowerment to young men turned into sexist and male superiority videos.
I indulged in these videos for a few weeks before realizing how messed up they were. As my heart healed and my brain fog cleared, I saw these “red pill” videos for what they really were.
The sad thing is, many hurt young men cannot see through the BS.
I got vulnerable in this one, explaining the place I was in and trying to help other young men escape their hurt without dragging innocent women down with them.
Mac Miller’s Goodbye Note
Last week, my good friend and coworker Aaron gifted me Slaughterhouse-Five by Indiana native Kurt Vonnegut for Christmas.
I’ve never read Slaughterhouse-Five, but thanks to Mac Miller, I already knew something important about it.
Miller turned the book’s often-appearing “So it goes” phrase into the final song on his final pre-death album, Swimming.
Miller had ended many projects with a death-centric song, but “So It Goes” just felt different. It felt like a goodbye note.
A month after Swimming was released, Mac Miller passed away.
In this article, I wrote about Miller’s ability to turn his abstract, depressed thinking into beautiful art — and how “So It Goes” was his final example.
Have a great final few days of 2022! See you in the New Year.