Today it’s easier than ever to get stuck in a loop of mindless consumption. I’ve made moves to escape: Unfollowed everybody on Instagram. Unfriended my Facebook friends. Removed all traces of Reddit from my phone. Cut my cable.

Gone are the droning of political pundits filling the air of my living room and the perfectly curated Instagrams of latte art. The Upvotes, the Likes, and the Shares.

It’s left a vacuum. My instinct is to fill it with a feed of something else.

But I realize there’s a simple way to fill the void: By creating.

Creating ain’t easy. It’s a fragile process that begins as a thought, and with care and attention, grows until its release to the Great Blue Yonder.

Sometimes, fragile ideas that can grow to great things are destroyed by pessimism, criticism, and lack of belief. And unfortunately, people never get to the point of sharing to the Great Blue Yonder because frankly, that shit hurts.

So why bother creating in the first place?

Because pessimism, criticism, and lack of belief never accomplishes great things. Because we never set foot on the moon by saying “we won’t ever get there.”

Because everybody has the power to create.

I want to create. I will create.