sweet ’n’ sour tape #24: DOG DAYS
FIRST THINGS FIRST GOTTA KNOW UR ANSWER TO THIS:
Last month was a big moment for me. You know why. You know what we did. We had the perfect hurrah for your leaving Philly, and it was also the official start of my artistic career. The past month thought has not gone as smoothly as I thought. On top of having to make some last minute touch ups to my art, I decided to take up a new goal that is going to require a lot of time, energy, and patience. That last one will be tough 😬
But it’s all in the pursuit of furthering my independence. And that was something we touched on in our last IRL conversation- you brought up how it was great but ultimately a bit stressful for you when you realized the comforts of your current life were only because you were in good standing with a big company. I don’t blame you, that would kinda stress me out too. Who are you without the company? Would you be back with us in North Philly? Would you be at home with…your parents?
Season 1 of the Sweet ’n’ Sour Tapes was a success to me bro. Because when we started we were literally just kids, and the only goal was to really keep in contact and document our growth. Lots of ups and downs sure, but I think Season 1 was EXTREMELY crucial to our growth; the insights we shared and provided each other dramatically improved our confidence and focus, and it highlighted personal qualities that we need to develop to attain our definition of success. And what was one of the biggest parts of that definition?
Independence.
If Season 1 was a coming of age story where we figured out who we are and how to leverage our knowledge and character traits to be successful, then Season 2 is about putting all that to the test in the pursuit of independence. In this case of course, we are talking about financial independence. But as we get further in our careers, I think the independence to realize our ideas and visions without outside contingencies and interference will take increasing priority too.
It’s been on my mind a lot more as of late because I turned 22 last month (🤮). Based on how life goes, I could even have a kid in 5–6 years (even more 🤮). I’m a couple years deep into this shit now- I’m no longer that kid who first told you over the phone all those years ago he wanted to make music, I no longer have no sound or aesthetic. I can’t say I’m a ‘beginner’ anymore. I think I used that as a crutch for a while to justify my lack of progress, but I’ve kicked all that type of shit to the curb.
You’ve helped me with that when we went to the park before you left and you said:
That’s been my guiding principle so far for Season 2. And how’s it going? Well I guess I’ll have to let you know next time. After all, I just started. But that’s my question for your next tape:
So far in DC, what’s been your guiding principle? Is it working?
EPILOGUE
your brother was talking shit.
i’m paraphrasing but he said the following (the words all came from his mouth):
“It’s so weird to think my brother wanted to be an entrepreneur at one point.”
“Yeah I think Green is gonna be a CEO one day still, once he gets his rental property.”
“What bro? No way. All he wants to do is be a hermit in a cabin and write books and shit, and just make passive income on the side. He basically just wants to chill and do nothing. I don’t know why though, cause I think he’d be really bored.”
“Well, if I know Green, I know that he’ll find a way to keep busy. And doing something creative requires a lot of time and effort so I can see that taking up more of his time as he pursues his creative projects.”
“Yeah he’ll find ways to be busy but he’ll mostly be doing random shit. And he’s not really creative, he has creative spurts, but it’s always between the monotony. He needs to be in a regular stable thing so he can have these crazy creative outbursts, but he’s not creative enough to just be creative all the time.”
“So you think he needs the monotony?”
“Yeah, I do. I think he always needs some kind of normal regimen. But my brother will always be switching life directions and loses his mind because he can’t decide. I already know he’s going to get burnt out at [COMPANY].”
“You think he’s going to get burnt out at [COMPANY]?”
“Yeah because he’ll do what he always does and overwork himself, but I think he’ll burn out because he’ll like rush. The thing about my brother is, he wants to be a hermit that just writes books, but he also wants to work for Apple, and then go on a crazy drug fueled bender and make an amazing commercial for the next Mac OS.”
Basically, it seems like your brother believes you’re still restless, still a wanderer, and still prone to compensating for your lack of direction with an exceptional work ethic. Do you think that’s true?
