re-respirited: a tumblr revival

Through a series of happy accidents, my 2026 so far has been defined by learning completely new skills. Since January, I’ve started piano lessons (my first ever engagement with a musical instrument), learned riso printing, and started shooting film photos. Having started from no prior knowledge in each case, I have felt more like a child in the last few months than any time since I actually was one.

As children, we’re encouraged to learn new things almost every day. Not just the things that are considered foundational to human life (walking, reading, brushing our teeth) but countless other activities that most adults give up as soon as they are free of school and/or their parents. I’m thinking: volleyball, building gingerbread houses, painting, giving speeches, writing poetry, mummifying eggplants, guitar.

Becoming an adult, in many cases, is gaining the right to stop learning new skills (if one so chooses). We reduce the means through which we express ourselves to only those with which we are most comfortable. We settle into what is known to us, where our competencies lie, and we deepen those tracts every time we cycle through them.