A Violet Revamp

I’ve been sharing waaay too much about myself on here. I should do less of that.

I recently brought Violet Open Mic back this past Thursday. For those who don’t know, it’s my weekly poetry and vibes space I host every Thursday on Twitter. I was planning on posting this the day before, but it didn’t quite work out that way, so I’m announcing my revamp now.

So, Rae’s Violet Words– what is that? As of today, it’s a blog focusing on art, poetry, book and entertainment reviews, and commentary on modern issues. Notice something missing?

Me. There needs to be less me.

I’m scaling way back, taking it from 100 to 25 with the personal essays and full vulnerability moments. I’ve been too forthcoming about who I am, too vulnerable, and I feel exposed. I exposed myself for all the internet to see, and it’s too much. It’s had my anxiety on 500%. So, instead of those bi-weekly posts about work, anger, frustrations, love, heartbreak, anxiety and every other single or combined moment of my life from the past 10 years, I’ll leave that to a diary.

I was compensating— no, overcompensating— for how I wanted others to feel comfortable approaching me and see me as an inspiration. I got the whole idea from reading Medium blog posts a few years ago (always so raw, poignant, and intimately personal at times. That’s what I wanted to replicate on Rae’s Violet Words). I saw myself as a public figure who owed her readers full disclosure. But I’m not, and I don’t.

There comes a point where it’s too much, too draining, and too taxing to share so much of yourself with no reciprocity when you’re already so easy to find online anyway.

There came a moment that I realized I try too hard to be everything all at once, but also somehow separate myself into artist, pro writer, and just regular old Rae. Guess what? I couldn’t do all the separating myself and being the version of me everyone wants me to be when they need me to be!

So, I took time to reevaluate and even seriously reconsidered restarting the Violet Words “podcast” (with actual guests this time! I had a short list of potential guests and everything.) But realized I’m already stretching myself thin as it is, with everything going on in my life. So the pod is scrapped, at least for now because I’d really love to have the perfect cohost and there’s just so much that goes into a quality podcast, of course!

All that being said, this blog will go back to being what it originally was. Art, reviews, and poetry…. with a smidge of personal essays. How’s that for a focused revamp?

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