My name is Jas. I created this page as a hobby, something to do between work and leisure. Its something I had been thinking about and toying with for a while now, with maybe three different iterations. I finally decided to stick to this one, after graduating from university and looking to define myself. I studied STEM however I’ve always considered myself an art student at heart. I’ve had an infatuation with literature for as long as I can remember. In school I was a quiet theatre kid that put her head down too hard (a true oxymoron). I spent most of my college years disengaged from studying, more interested in ticking off those essential adolescent experiences, though I managed to graduate. I have so many interests that I rarely find a group that I can truly fit into.

What I really am is a dilettante. A dabbler.

Largely, I dabble in consuming media. I find some great quotes whilst consuming. I also like to consume products which I believe will someday improve my physical appearance.

Why start a “blog”? When I first envisioned this website it was a blog akin to Aaron Swartz’, which I read reverently for a time in 2015. As a Gen Z-er introduced to an Internet never without social media, I was fascinated by the unrestricted characters and actual discussion happening in each blog posts’ comment section. I wouldn’t say I’m as compelling as Swartz, but the entries of his days wandering East Coast universities and the corresponding comments advising him where to go or defending their university was so engrossing it felt like reading a good novel. And as someone fascinated by novels, I loved it. I didn’t think I could make my own though. I was never a programmer and though you might think I was looking at my university degree - I stuck to “the business side” which roughly translates to bullshitting.

As usual for me, it wasn’t until I finished studying that I became more interested in what I was studying previously. I’d always known HTML, I wrote tumblr themes in my teens, so I didn’t think a personal site would be too hard. Plus, I’d been radicalised throughout university and loved the whole hand-made, small, slow web ideology. So, I decided to do it. But - what to publish? At some point, this blog was going to be a simple subsection of a personal portfolio. I love the idea of a dressed-up resume (they can be so dull and uniform), and I was applying for jobs, so it could have worked. Only that I didn’t really have enough work experience to put down, and no serious projects I’d worked on in past internships; my college projects were jokes. Plus, as a perfectionist and image-obsessed individual, a portfolio would have been mountains of stress and sleepless nights spent thinking, “what if an employer hates the design of my site?” and some other silly questions.

I thought I’d just try to have fun. Fun for me is expression of self, truly and unabashedly. This means not caring too much, just enough to feel comfortable with myself. So, the goal was to publish stuff that was polished, as well as unpolished (more of the latter, perhaps), and showcase my genuine self. Maybe, I thought, it would help this 20-something figure out who she truly is, since I’ve been having difficulty with that lately. Whatever thought I have, whatever essay idea I think of, I’ll try my hardest to find the time to write. To understand how I think through actualisation, into words. It takes a lot for me to try and do something; societal and familial and monetary pressures always in the way, but writing is free. Risk-free and cost-free. So I’ll write, and be a little drop in the ever-expanding ocean of personal sites.