"This photo was taken one year ago, beside one of northern Michigan's many lakes. At the time, J.R. and I were working on our first book, Orange is Optimism, which was created entirely inside of Sunshine's four rusty walls. - This book only exists because of a community of people who envisioned it along with us. That's you guys. No lie...this book easily could've never been... - J.R. had published his work in previous projects, so a foray into bookland was a natural next challenge. - My story was different. I had always fantasied about creating a book. It was a latent dream, buried under hundreds of fears and doubts and voices telling me no. I hid most of my work from the world. Who was I to think we had something to say? Who were we to broadcast thoughts to the world? (You can witness what a wreck I was about the whole thing on the @sheexplores podcast, episode #1. Gale caught me fretting the morning before opening our pre-order. I hadn't slept in days.) - That's where you guys came in. You asked for a book, you encouraged us to go deeper, you showed up at the preorder to say hell yeah, this is something we want. We had never experienced that sort of support. It overwhelmed us. We didn't know what to do with all the energy. - Last year was a coming out of sorts. Because of your support, I stepped into who I wanted to be. I let loose some of the thoughts I had locked inside composition books and archived Word documents deep in my laptop. I fucking changed my name. - It's August 2017. Even after months of reflection, I don't know what to make of any of this. - Thank you to all of you who identify as optimists and who urged us to step out of hiding. Thank you for opening your world to us. Orange is Optimism is the result of a community, and we have your names in the pages as co-pilots of this 5 year over-land, over-mind journey. Book in hand, I'm convinced that anything is possible. - If you want to enter the world of our book, Orange is Optimism, you can click over to the link in bio. ✨ #orangeisoptimism" Thanks to @idletheorybus for sharing this photo with us! #Vanlifers @Vanlifers
