Hi. I’m Reuben.

Full time joke man & part time procrastinator*.

*should really be a full-time procrastinator, too. But I actually procrastinate procrastinating as well. Irony.

Anyway.

I blog now. I really wanted to be a vlog guy. As in, I started shooting footage and everything. Congrats to anyone who currently has a vlog out (*cough* Rechmial Miller, Armani Thomas *cough*). Recording things is arduous. Hated it. Also, I only have a 16GB iPhone. I’m not deleting Google Maps just to record my own voice. My priorities, unlike my hairline, are straight.

ANYWAY.

I want to keep a semi-regular account of some thoughts. Thanks to the Gregorian calendar, we have months, so I didn’t have to create an arbitrary measurement of time to do so. I think that’s how most of us find catharsis in our everyday lives anyway. Payday is usually at the end of the month. We gauge how far away events, deadlines and holidays are by the months that exist between us and them. “If I can just make it to the end of the month” is probably a sentence you’ve said a couple times.
Well, it’s here.

And it took its bloody time.

Rant aside, I want the crux of these posts to be a quick statement that I’ve made or have generally endorsed. I want to take a deep dive (pause) into it and analyze it from a few perspectives, in the process hopefully presenting you, the reader, with some valuable insight (or opportunity to do some introspection), and me, the author (or the Arthur, WINK WINK) with the opportunity to flex my English Literature A* muscles.

Lol, from GCSE yknow. Back when I cared about grades. Mad.

This month, that statement is:

“Keep that same energy”.

This is the first thing I tweeted in 2018. Hopefully that means nothing to you. But I’m extremely calculated, to the point where I’m almost a physical embodiment of Chekov’s Gun (Google it); if I do something, it always factors in to life at a later point.

Nothing I do is accidental.

Sometimes stupid, or wrong… nah scratch that I’ve done bare stupid, wrong things that were accidents. Still sorry about that table.

But yeah… for the most part I try and make my actions purposeful.

“Keep that same energy” is the sentiment I wanted to frame my year around. Weirdly enough, apparently so did rappers Che Lingo (“Same Energy”) and Russ (“Flip”). You doubt my capabilities? Keep that same energy when I prove you wrong. Moving mad behind my back? Keep that same energy in my front.

…nah “in my front” is MAD fresh looool.

But you get the gist.

After living through January with that thought in mind, however… it’s not always practical.

Let me explain.

If you have a craft and for whatever reason your prowess within said craft is, in your opinion, undervalued by your contemporaries, only to one day warrant enough attention to suddenly be valued, wishing for your contemporaries to “keep that same energy” is only detrimental to you. Bro, the game is the game (but we’ll get to that). Firm it. Understand that not everybody you encounter cares about you on an individual level and keep it stepping. A more productive alternative is to look internally and find value in yourself. From your close ones. People who see you as more than what you can do, but for who you are. You can keep that same energy.

You got beef with someone? Or, do you not have beef with someone but they have beef with you?*

*substitute for Quorn or that bean veggie Nandos thing if that’s your dietary preference. Me, I like my meat. Take that how you will.

You wish they would “keep that same energy” when they see you? Truss. Cos it’s gonna be on sight init. No. Dead. Stevie Wonder. Ray Charles. Grow up. Negativity of any kind is a weed that only grows in your garden. You might not mind that, but it takes up space for you to sow your own seeds and allow you to blossom into the better person you can potentially become.

Make shoots, not shots.

It’s crazy because my phone screen for January was Isaiah Thomas (point guard currently playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, though honestly, I dunno how long for cos he’s moving mad). I think he and everything surrounding him is the perfect summation as to why this mentality is so toxic.

Firstly, he’s short.

That’s not a bad thing,

Some of my best friends are short.

But as a result, he’s had doubters his whole basketball career. I’m sure he wants them to “keep that same energy” when he attempts to prove them wrong, every time he steps on the court. Unfortunately, in doing so, he exerts way too much time and energy shooting way too many airballs, leading to too many losses which ultimately serves to prove his doubters right.

Maybe he shouldn’t keep that same energy.

Maybe the Cavs should have kept Kyrie.

What do I know?