Have I been wanting to create a Substack for a while? Yes. Have I been ambivalent about starting one? Yes. Have I been dying for an outlet to write that isn’t a chaotic Pages file I’ve had since college titled “Free Writing”? Why, yes!

But what exactly launched me past my own ambivalence towards a full embrace of Substack? Part of it was realizing that if nothing changes, nothing changes, but let’s be real — it’s the fact that I have been paying for the domain carololyn.com for two years and have done jack squat with it. The BlueHost charge on my Discover card caused me to drop the match, but this match has been lit for a while with the kindling waiting patiently below.

So this is my promise to you, but mostly to myself: this is a space to write; to share thoughts and feelings; to experiment with semicolons; to recommend anything from music to cat toys to makeup; to articulate the feelings that linger and the ones that flash by fast; to judge my own writing; to reject optimization; to complain; to praise; to sometimes use AP style but sometimes not; to make some sense of my voice.