Trust Your Imagination

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As part of my current morning routine, I’m reading a chapter every morning out of the anthology Light the Dark. The book features over 30 authors, who each write about creativity & writing centered around their favorite quote. This morning, as I was reading through one of these chapters, I stopped dead in my tracks as I read the following:


Trust your imagination. Free-fall into it. See where it brings you to. It’s scary. It’s unorganized, and you’re going to have to prepare yourself for some major fucking rewriting — and maybe cut two years of work.

What writing asks of us is the opposite of what being in the American culture asks of us. You’re supposed to have a five-year plan. Young people now are so cautious. Oh, we can’t get married until we have a house. Oh, we can’t have a baby until we have twenty grand in the bank. These crazy, careful people! You know, look: Life is short if you live a hundred years. Better to die naked and reckless and with passion — and not be afraid to fuck up and fail.

-Andre Dubis III, featured in Light the Dark

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As I’m trying to navigate post grad school, I’m constantly worried about my five-year plan (or really lack of one). I’m constantly craving creativity. I worry & I plan.

And this passage challenged all of that. Graciously. Directly. Timely. As if written for me in this moment.