Getting (Back) to the Paper
The year 2020 was a terrible one. There’s really no other way to put it. However, towards the end I put my focus towards this year - 2021 and what to make of it. I thought about my goals, and how I could achieve them. There were so many I made for myself and my family a year ago that I never got to in 2020. Some were due to uncontrollable circumstances, but most were my own fault.
One of those goals was to write more. And not just any type of writing, I wanted to blog and be a critic. It is, after all, a long term goal of mine to be a film, music, and fashion writer for Complex, Hypebeast, Highsnobiety, or even GQ. I want to make money from freelance writing. These long term goals are similar to the goals I had coming out of college eleven years ago. I was 24 years old, which was older than most of my peers physically, but mentally I may as well have been 21 or 22. I started interning unpaid at Indianapolis Monthly in January of 2010. I worked every week day, thinking it would help me get ahead when I should’ve interned two or three times a week, while working at J.Crew and Brooks Brothers to make ends meet (which is something I ended up doing the next year, minus the internship). I did that for six months before I landed a paid internship at Men’s Health magazine in Emmaus, PA. That internship was one I had wanted for years, and while I have fond memories of my time there, I also have deep regrets.
I did not work hard at Men’s Health. It wasn’t because I was lazy, a bad writer, nor did I hate the job. It was because my passion for the magazine had subsided. I applied a year prior and didn’t get the job. In the approximate six months between me getting rejected and landing the job, my passion for Complex and GQ.
I read Complex magazine all through college, but I never considered working there until I had those six months to continue exploring my passion for The Arts. I was also a budding hypebeast, getting heavily into streetwear with the help of the Dope Couture store in Bloomington, IN and Kanye West as my muse. Complex was, and still may be, the leading magazine publishing what college kids (millennials at the time) were wearing, listening to, watching, and everything we thought was cool. GQ displayed the professional style I embodied. Men’s Health was full of, well, health. It served me well throughout my high school and college days as a star athlete, but I was changing and my college football career was coming to an end. Journalism, fashion, and music were on my mind more than football.
Still, I took the Men’s Health internship. I wasn’t awful, but simple articles seemed daunting because my mind was elsewhere. I spent hours each day perusing Complex instead of the scientific studies I was supposed to read for my current gig. This was the Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy era. I dove into Mixtape Fridays (which I wish Complex would bring back) and wrote personal reviews on all the music. This was the beginning of the Thom Browne craze of very short-cropped pants and innovative tailoring. This was the stuff that consumed me. Needless to say, when Men’s Health decided they wanted to hire one of the interns that year, I was not picked. This led me down a long path towards a different career, which I also love, but writing has never left my heart.
This brings me to today. I’m done procrastinating. I give myself permission to write crap and improve over time. I’m going to write for Complex, Hypebeast, Highsnobiety, GQ, and some other publications like Pitchfork. It’s going to take practice and I’m up for the challenge. So, here’s this blog. One of my top goals for 2021 is to write consistently. I named this blog The Modern Critique because it will largely consist of artistry I appreciate and criticize along with some profile features. I also named it that because, while I may be a bit of a jock, I’m also boujee. This blog is one big writing exercise for me to improve and enjoy my own writing so I can prepare myself to be the writer I’ve always wanted to be. So, here’s to 2021, big goals, big dreams, and making this year much better than the last.
