💭 Reflecting on August: My Personal Documentarian Insights
Letter 174
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Aloha fellow learn-it-all 👋
Greetings from my local library in the metro-Detroit area!
Summer is coming to a close. What a fun season it has been.
If you live in the States, this past Monday was a federal holiday. Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers that first began in 1882. For the Vermet household, it means closing up the cottage for the winter by taking the boats out, waxing, and a little extra courage jumping off the dock into the lake while playing fetch with the doggies.
Now, let’s dive into letter 174 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!
❓Question to think about
How did August go?
🤔 Reflecting
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller, a Chicagoan usually found sick
“We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey, American educational reformer
Reflection is essential to life. This is why I’m obsessed with my journaling practice. I undoubtedly would not be near as poised in the life I live today if I didn’t take time to pause and objectively look back on life. It’s never too late to reflect.
This practice is what I would call what a “documentarian” does. It is essential for a part of myself to feel seen. I can’t keep going on in my life with an “all gas, no brakes” mentality. When I put on my documentarian hat, I get to be on the brakes to reflect on the process and live with intentionality moving forward.
I invite you to be a documentarian and use these same questions to prompt yourself. Here’s the spread of six questions:
What am I celebrating?
What made me laugh?
What did I lack?
What surprised me?
What did I learn?
What am I actively pondering?
Here we go :)
🎉 What am I celebrating?
My four published letters:
Closure since being away for over two years from Chicago. The city is home to one of the largest and most diverse collections of skyscrapers in the world. Also home to culinary innovation for its foodies. Both of these things are not where my curiosity lies in this season of life. I feel at peace with my abrupt move away.
Athletic competitions for three Sundays in a row and personal records. I woke at 5 a.m. to get numbers Sharpied onto my biceps, a latex cap stretched onto my head, and jumped into cold water with other crazy kooks. I swam three miles at the coastal crawl in Little Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan, 2.4 miles in Versluis Lake in Grand Rapids, and 0.7 miles under the Mackinaw Bridge in both Lakes Huron and Lake Michigan for the Race the Straits International Distance triathlon. I signed up for the Race the Straits triathlon less than a week before and decided it wasn’t impulsive because I felt ready.
The fastest 5 miles I ran this year at Petoskey Running Club in 50 minutes.
Catching fireflies in my hands while walking dogs with my family.
Long drives and realizing how lucky I am to be living. It’s even more fun to turn those car rides into mini road trip adventures.
Waking up with drool on my cheeks from deep sleep and wild dreams.
Eating at Panera Bread and feeling the presence of my grandma Omi as I sip down my soup in my bread bowl.
Going to church at a beach, bringing my bible, and reading aloud. It’s beautiful how Jesus valued the little things that humans care about like turning water into wine.
Not holding my tongue and speaking up. I grew up where social graces were always most important and lately, I find myself following through on speaking what my curiosity craves to express.
🤭 What made me laugh?
When a pack of dog walkers asked me at a fork in the trail “Which path is best?” I smiled and ran by them “Not a clue.” I didn’t dither, I just went right because it felt right. ;)
Feline affections. They show it so strangely. Cats want a pet, but then they don’t. They show their desire for love in such a wonky way sometimes.
When I didn’t see a single female on my Friday night of errands at Belle Tire and Auto Zone.
When Polo (a six-year-old golden doodle) pooped underwater at the sandbar.
My cousin telling me I paid $50 to borderline drown next to strangers while swimming three miles on my Sunday morning.
The cultural spectacle while at the local county fair’s “Bump N Run” in northern Michigan of seeing cars rolling around with firefighters on standby, flying tires, and tractors to lift cars off the race course. (link)
Nerdy jokes at Zanies comedy club in Chicago rather than cheap humor about ex-lovers, sex, politics, or kids being back in school.
🪫 What did I lack?
Intellectual energy. When I was at the University of Chicago I snuck into the Joe + Rika Mansueto Library and felt like I was a part of something bigger than myself. I miss silent libraries being surrounded by people exploring ideas.
Closure on books. I’m an expert at quitting books once I lose interest. But I still need a better process to share what ideas resonated from the book. I created a template in Notion, so now I just need to follow through and use that.
Self-control with sugar. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Cherry pie for lunch. Ice cream after dinner. Mamma mia, I’m heading toward the cavity club. That was too much. I’ve been doing a lot of road trips which lead to gas station snacks. I’ve found that proactively bringing alternative snacks before long trips is better so there are fewer temptations to be naughty.
😯 What surprised me?
People who are in Ironman competitions are intimidating. Show up and stick to what your goal is and everything will be fine. I somehow walked out of the water after my 2.4 mile swim and was the second female to finish.
How much energy it can take to re-engage a network of people.
Similar to different Christian churches, Zen Centers also have varying flavors.
There’s something in the air while walking around a college campus.
How much I enjoyed reading Some Advice for a 22-Year-Old Just Getting Started by Jack Raines (found via Joe Well’s Lake Street Journal)
After seeing David Perrell drop his podcast with Jimmy Soni, I researched Claude Shannon, who he wrote the biography on, and saw he grew up in Petoskey, Michigan where I’ve been living this summer. Small world!
That the casual phrase “stuck in a limbo” has a dark root in Catholicism as the abode of the souls of unbaptized infants, and of those who died before Christ's coming.
When I saw the gusts of wind on Lake Michigan and a few Wavestorm longboards came out in the freezing water to surf. Those were some brave lads.
When I bought my first wetsuit, because I weighed over 140 lbs, I was a size large. They’re also quite tricky to get on the body.
Setting up a mic is a lot more confusing than I expected.
🎯What did I learn?
To stay youthful, I need to stay astonished. (shoutout to Kevin Kelly)
Life is long. No need to rush. (shoutout to Uncle Clay and my friend’s mom for this one :) )
If I extrapolate data to set a hypothesis, I can’t take it too seriously. I need wiggle room to have grace. (shoutout to Christa Abar)
Drives in the Jeep will always take plus or minus 25% longer time to complete than the Google Maps arrival estimate.
When you like something about someone let it be known and share it. That comment might make their day. You never know.
Don’t blame anyone else for your own unhappiness. That narrative can be changed. See the world without villains, and rather, full of flawed humans including yourself.
Playing Catan feels pointless without a strategy. The first placement of settlements sets the trajectory. Choose more wisely.
Unconditional love and forgiveness are two concepts that I believe strongly in that were planted in my Catholic upbringing.
More education won’t always solve problems. More experiences have a higher likelihood of creating impact rather than more knowledge. This world already is overflowing with knowledge.
How much I enjoyed my artist date on a Saturday afternoon writing snail mail (after being inspired by Carina’s
about snail mail)
❓What am I actively pondering?
What are my weird quirks and behaviors? (Movie inspiration: When Harry Met Sally)
How can I grant grace while giving or receiving feedback, recognizing we are all flawed humans?
Of the boundless possibilities of the future, which ones excite me the most?
How can I channel presence even when I have upcoming travel plans that sidetrack my mind?
How can I speak my truth while minimizing my need to be liked (even though it’s a human desire to be liked)?
What goals are worth setting?
How could I help friends learn to write online?
Who did I help today?
Where do I draw the fine line between being content vs. complacent?
What do I want my life to look like for 32-year-old me? (five years from now)
I might write more about some of these reflections. They all feel raw, and I am willing to dive into any of them more. If you have a particular interest in reading more about any of them, just let me know :)
✅ ❌ In & Out List for September 2023
🎬 Watching
I rewatched the classic movie Karate Kid from 1984 on Netflix. It's about a friendship that blossoms with Daniel LaRusso, a high school boy, learning karate from his apartment's maintenance man, Mr. Miyagi. It's inspiring how Mr. Miyagi sees Daniel struggling to learn karate by book to defend himself against the bullies at school. He needed to learn with a teacher. Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel in the seemingly pointless manual labor of sanding his floor, waxing his cars, and painting his fence and house. This pivotal moment is when it all came together for Daniel-san.
I caught a lot of great lessons from the teacher-student relationship.
Seven of my favorite quotes from Mr. Miyagi:
No such thing as [a] bad student. Only [a] bad teacher.
To make honey, young bee need young flower, not old prune.
Wax on. Wax off. Breath in. Breath out.
[The] Lesson about balance is not about karate only. [The] Lesson for [a] whole life. [If] whole life has a balance, everything better.
Time for karate pact. I promise [to] teach karate. You promise [to] learn. I say. You do. No questions. Now do your part.
[The] secret to punch is to fit all the power in [the] whole body one inch inside your hand.
Trust [the] quality of what you know, not [the] quantity.
The last time I watched this was in July 2020 when I wrote about it in letter 18.
🔍Word to define
Documentarian: an expert analyst of historical documents.
Despite what Merriam-Webster defines “one who makes a documentary”, I am choosing to highlight it as the alternative meaning away from the profession.
⛬ History
From Etymology Online:
1754, "admonition, instruction, teaching," a sense now obsolete, noun of action from document (v.) or else from Medieval Latin documentationem (nominative documentio) "a reminding," from Latin documentum "example, proof, lesson," in Medieval Latin "official written instrument, authoritative paper" (see document (n.)). Meaning "preparation or use of documentary evidence" is by 1888. Scientific meaning "a collection and classification of informational papers" is from 1927.
🌟Quote to inspire
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” -Henry David Thoreau via his memoir Walden
📸Photos of the Week
The photo on the left was my first time out single-handing a sailboat since 2018. This boat featured is an RS Aero, aka a super duper tippy boat. I lost track of how many times I flipped after I made it to 10. I turtled it full upside down twice. A pontoon boater passed by me and pumped his fist in the air to celebrate my triumph of getting the boat vertical again. My arms still feel like limp noodles and mysterious bruises have appeared all over my body. What a fun beating that was.
On the right is a picture of my clan, walking through the woods. We went over to the babbling brook so that the dogs could cool off in the mud. It was a hot one, which made me even more grateful for the shade from the trees and my dip in the lake afterward.
🙏Shoutouts
To the Whippy Dip ice cream joint near the Vanderbilt exit of I75. It makes the drive much more delightful with a milkshake in hand.
Many were sprinkled throughout this month’s reflection. A big hoorah to all the family and friends surrounding me in life. It’s been such a wholesome month where I didn’t have plans set and everything came together beautifully. I am so grateful.
I appreciate you reading this!
If ideas resonate, I’d love you to press the heart button, leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetjl@gmail.com. If you forget who I am, I welcome you to my online home.
Never stop learning 😁
Mahalo 🌺
Jen
PS - In case you missed last week’s letter, I wrote lessons from being 1 year alcohol-free
PPS - If you missed July’s reflection, here it is.
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