Community always wins.

The pandemic – depending on who you ask – is “over”, but some of us who moved away from cities and changed our lives didn’t completely go back to the old way. I still live in farm country. My spouse and I don’t have many friends out here. Between food allergies, conveniences of modern life and a high-energy toddler, we don’t get out a lot.

But I have the friends and colleagues and acquaintances I’ve cultivated on the Internet.

I moved my newsletter back to Substack (or rather, I never left – just tried something different for a bit). The pull of Substack’s community is just too great – especially now that I’m reading multiple newsletters and engaging with fellow creators a bit, thanks to the Notes feature. (That’s my Twitter clone of choice.) I underestimated how empowering it was to not just read the writing of good writers, but see their thoughts and discussions with each other out in the open.

I’m also trying to do more of this LinkedIn thing. I don’t want to spew advice constantly in the form of horizontally-scrolled carousels, but the bit that I do post has led to some wonderful interactions with people I’d otherwise never have met, and little commnunities I’m now a part of.

What I’ve missed most is a community of similarly-minded music fans. My former bandmates recently started a Discord server for fans of their current band, and that opened yet something new and exciting for me. I’m reconnecting with great musicians I’ve lost touch with, meeting new folks all over the world (the band is somewhat popular in the Nordic countries!) and sharing our music and tastes with each other.

I’ve got these communities that keep me moving forward.

If you like my increasingly vulnerable writing on LinkedIn, there’s more of that on my newsletter - so subscribe on Substack, I guess! Link in comments.