Love Letters ✨💌 From A Creative Chimera ShinYi Tan

Hey! You’ve got mail! This is letter number 5 of Love Letters from a Creative Chimera: a newsletter & microblog capturing things, people, and ideas that have made me fall absolutely in love with life over and over again. My name is XinYi and this podcast is where I read my letters for those who prefer to consume their content through audio rather than reading.

I feel really strongly about this particular topic and letter so, without any further delays…

dearest reader,

Your existence is important.
By being simply who you are without any further explanation or expectation, you validate someone else’s life.

This idea came to me when I saw a friend write about her personal dissatisfaction with her work. When compared to others, she didn’t feel as if she used her platform, voice, and art productively to spark conversations on social activism or rally change. And while I admired and fully supported her newfound aspiration for standing up, I also wanted her to know… she didn’t need to feel that her existing body of work (which consisted of warm paintings and tender photographs inspired and captured through her travels and unique cultural background) were meaningless by comparison.

Because they aren’t.

By simply being herself, exploring her interests, and creating joy, she is living proof that a person with any parallels to her story can live a beautiful life. And as someone who shares her narrative of an Asian upbringing, a passion for creating art, as well as a love for travel and cultural immersion, when I see her gifts to the world depicting any of these shared elements, it makes me feel connected to her (and, by extension, humanity) and deeply understood.

But even if our lives did not eclipse each other’s as perfectly, some part of your story would still resonate with mine (and vice versa)! Because there exists a universal empathy for trauma and strife, just as there exists a universal familiarity for feelings of love (whether it is for something — a hobby, a place, a culture, or an idea — or for someone — platonically or romantically).

This letter isn’t meant to discourage you from improving or developing yourself. Rather, if it is human nature to cycle between forgetting and remembering, this is your reminder:

Your existence validates someone else’s, and you are an inspiration.

love,

a very forgetful & chaotic creative chimera

ps. Yes, this letter was also supposed to double as a reminder to myself. :’)

The reason why I feel so strongly about this topic is because I feel that by simply being good to ourselves and taking care of and protecting our mental health, we naturally generate more good energy. And that good energy is infectious so if you’re happy, you’ll probably uplift those around you. And if they’re uplifted, the energy keeps being passed forward. Everything they say about being able to produce your best work when you’re filled with joy — I 100% believe in it and hence why I feel like the greatest charity we can provide to the world is self development and self improvement. 

If this resonates with you, please reach out on instagram @creative.chimera or visit my website at https://desktop.creative-chimera.com! Let’s keep in touch!

Welcome back to letter number 4 of Love Letters from a Creative Chimera: a newsletter & microblog capturing things, people, and ideas that have made me fall absolutely in love with life over and over again. My name is XinYi and this podcast is where I read my letters for those who prefer to consume their content through audio rather than reading off a screen.

About two summers back, I met my gemini twin flame and it sparked the beginning of a most wholesome friendship. A friendship so pure it reminded of the friendships you make in childhood, and that’s what inspired the whole concept behind what I’m about to explain. So here we go!



dearest elusive & illustrious #bigkidenergy,

Two summers ago I met my twin flame & gemini brother. ❤️‍🔥

He lived so effortlessly outside the rules of society (e.g. foregoing a career as a graphic designer to pursue alternative possibilities for living), the inner rebel in me on-looked with such veracious admiration that our friendship inspired a renaissance of my childhood spirit: living without anxiety for the future, entertaining every curiosity with reckless innocence, and pursuing passions with the purest gush of sincerity that can only be described as the ultimate joy of play. ✨

I think one of my greatest tragedy of growing up has been the repeated exposure to other people’s dreams & ideologies of success.  I’ve wasted so much energy compensating for the trauma that I’ve inherited (due to a mix of America’s hustle culture shaken with an Asian upbringing) — brainwashed into a tiresome state of permanent dissatisfaction in the endless pursuit of perfection. And the worse part? I didn’t even personally care for the things I worried about! 😖 I’d just been told for so long that I needed to stress over these things (productivity, fame, material status, and excessive wealth), that I actually began to believe it.

Then there was my gemini twin brother — blatantly ignoring these pre-prescribed routes to success, digging into his own soul to seek a path more aligned with his standards of integrity and interests. He embraced what I’ve now come to call #bigkidenergy (#BKE)!

What exactly is #BKE?

the force that drives you into a state of flow

a sense of connectedness (either with oneself or someone else)

living with ease (I once heard that success can be defined as “doing what you said you’d do with ease”)

a healthy dose of boredom (the kind that inspires creativity)

neophilia: an inquisitiveness for the unknown

recognizing risks but taking them anyways

a willingness to learn
[full letter can be read here]

I don’t have anything extra to add to this letter this time. I’d love to hear if this concept of #bigkidenergy resonates with you and how you’re practicing it in your everyday life! As always, you can reach out on instagram @creative.chimera or visit my website at https://desktop.creative-chimera.com! Hope to hear from you soon!

Hi! You’ve got mail! 💌 This is letter number 3 of Love Letters from a Creative Chimera: a newsletter & microblog capturing things, people, and ideas that have made me fall absolutely in love with life over and over again. My name is XinYi and this podcast is where I read my letters for those who prefer to consume their content through audio rather than reading off a screen.

So in May of 2021 (just last month, if you’re listening in real time), I temporarily moved from Dallas to Chicago for 5 weeks to challenge myself to see if I was truly as adaptable as I believed myself to be. And the result? Well… you’re about to find out.

🌬

dearest windy city,

Today I depart from Chicago after 5 weeks of a whirlwind of 10k+ steps/days, trudging through every imaginable spectrum of bone-chilling rainstorms to sweltering hot summers, fanatic sprinting to catch trains and buses, arranging hangouts with newfound friends, and nursing my sore throat post one too many indulgently deep and thought provoking conversations while hopelessly losing track of time… and I feel so much joy and so much hope, I could almost stay… almost.

But I’m a neophiliac, and I’m drawn to change. Having been fortunate enough to travel as much as I have, I’ve come to accept that most cities are more or less the same — what makes them special and memorable are the people I meet. So here are just a few, in the order that I met them:

[ 💌 full letter found on creativechimera.substack.com!]

And of course, special shout out to the hubs for coming through at the end of the 3rd week so that we could do all the typical tourism things one normally does in Chi town together (the Cloud Gate/Bean at Millennium Park, the Riverwalk and Navy Pier, Lincoln Park Zoo, North Beach for views of the skyline, strolling the 606…). Chicago felt comfortable before his arrival, but having his company made Chicago feel, at last, like home.

So, thank you, Chicago; thank you for a series of unexpectedly good weather (the weatherman kept promising gloomy and overcast skies but your unpredictability continually surprised me with sunny afternoons), continually wholesome conversations, and scars around my ankles from endless urban hikes. I won’t miss how how you dried out my eyes with your blustery forecast nor the shady night rides home on the train, but I’ll still miss you all the same.

love,

nowhere girl in Colorado

If you’re wondering how I managed to find all these people to connect with, most of them were found from Asian Creative Network, a Facebook group I was invited to years back. I queried for the word “Chicago” up to 3 years back and just direct messaged everyone who has ever mentioned the word Chicago in a post or comment. I told them that I had just moved to Chicago and wanted some local recommendations of hidden gems! Of course, with the way that Facebook messenger is set up, getting a request from someone who isn’t already your friend is a little hidden so I expected the response rate to be a bit lower simply from this particular UX design. Because I personally don’t even use Facebook that much, for those who responded and was able to sustain a short but interesting conversation, I asked them to stay in touch through text. From there, I offered to meet up in person if they felt comfortable (given the COVID situation) and was equally interested!

One of my fatal character flaws is that I’m an infamous snail mail replier which basically means I suck at keeping in contact digitally. So quality time is imperative for maintaining meaningful friendships for me. That’s why I preferred to meet these new friends if I could!

Again, please please please check out any and all of these friends if you have the curiosity! If you’d like a personal introduction to any of them, feel free to message me @creative.chimera on instagram or comment on the original letter on creativechimera.substack.com! Until next time!

Website

Incoming… letter number 2 of Love Letters from a Creative Chimera: a newsletter & microblog capturing things, people, and ideas that have made me fall absolutely in love with life over and over again. My name is XinYi and this podcast is where I read my letters for those who prefer to consume their content through audio rather than reading off a screen.

This particular letter is near and dear to my heart because it’s the first time I’ve publicly announced that I’m aromatic. To make things even more confusing, it’s a love letter about my romantic relationship with my husband, whom I address. Have I piqued your interest? If so… here we go!

🐉

to the sun of my life & dragon to my moon,

It will forever confound me how you could confess to an aromatic alien like myself — to love me so purely and unconditionally even when you knew that I could never return your love. But I had also always wondered, living as an outsider looking in, what it would feel like to experience romance — this feeling so innate to the human experience that it propagated all forms of media... 

[ 💌 full letter found on creativechimera.substack.com!] 

Yet, despite all odds, you love me anyways — exactly as I was, just as I am, and wholesomely as I will become.

So, of course, I fell for you in return.

Maybe not in the same way one normally does, but I love you all the same. And some parts of this love has been tragic and painful, but I was aware that I’d be opening myself up to sorrow if I wanted to experience true intimacy. Everything worth it in life has never been, and never will be, easy.

And in so many ways, I feel like perhaps this love is more real. I know with absolute certainty that it will always be you. Regardless of where we are, who we become, and all the lives we’ll live, if I can know you again, I will undoubtedly fall for you in every single lifeline.

Because you make me fall in love with life,

and you make me fall in love with myself.

xx besos,

your alien chica & phoenix to your stars

For context, I wrote that for our 1 year anniversary. It’s been a huge relief to reveal this about myself publicly because of the overwhelming amount of love and support I’ve received from my friends. I think generally speaking, it feels so rare to find examples of aromantic characters in media that it  seems like we don’t exist at all.

In my opinion, a really good fictional work that explores the ideas of alternative forms of genuine love is the book The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Without giving away any spoilers, I’ll just say that the cast depicted forms of love that even I could understand. This is a big deal because prior to meeting my husband, most forms of affection in the romantic spectrum actually made me physically gag ( side note: this is a completely personal account and I don’t want to make a generalization about other’s people experience of aromanticism).  If you’ve read this book or are considering reading it, have thoughts you want to discuss, feel free to message me @creative.chimera on instagram or comment on the original letter on creativechimera.substack.com! 

Or visit my website @ https://desktop.creative-chimera.com

Write back soon! Bye!

Hi, my name is XinYi and this is Love Letters from a Creative Chimera: a newsletter & microblog capturing things, people, and ideas that have made me fall absolutely in love with life over and over again. This podcast is the audio companion where I read my letters out loud for those who prefer to listen rather than read. As someone who has always romanticized the ability to communicate effectively through written and spoken language, I’m hoping that the combination of writing for my blog and reading for my podcast will allow me to continually analyze and improve my fluency.

Dearest Abhas,
I am so excited to have met you right at the crux of the conclusion of another of your orbits around the sun! I love endings as much as I love beginnings because, in part, they are one and the same...

And I am so keen on this beginning -- your next year of life, because I have observed (through your works) the experiences you have folded into the layers of your existence. You live with such acute curiosity and fierce playfulness that it is impossible not to feel starstruck by your #https://creativechimera.substack.com/p/-a-love-letter-to-bigkidenergy. ⚡️

Your solo travels, photography capturing the beauty of mother nature, 3D model artworks, pursuit of writing a novel, YouTube hustle, and countless other passion projects awe and inspire me. A true polymath, renaissance artist, and creative chimera -- you are exploring the breath of possibilities that life has to offer to its fullest.

Which is why I'm so eager to see what paths you'll carve for yourself in life. I know we spoke of our shared distress over lack of linear application, but at my core, I don't believe life has to be so prescribed. It is the breath of our imagination that makes us human (yes, a play on the idea that you shared with me -- that creativity is as essential as breathing for people like us). 🎐
Please continue creating magic ✨Happy Birthday Abhas!
love,
nowhere girl in Chicago

Write to me @creative.chimera on instagram or read the original letter on http://creativechimera.substack.com!