$pent Millennial

Dear Reader,

Where does the time go?

Nearly three years ago, I first published the Spent Millennial WordPress site. 

Before there was a first post, there were months of thinking about it. Planning it. Overthinking it. Considering whether I should do it at all before finally deciding to stop thinking and just begin.

Even now, I can hardly believe it has been three years.

In fact, while writing this post, I was convinced it had only been two. I had somehow moved the start date up a year in my mind. Surely this little corner of the internet couldn’t be that old.

But it is.

Three years.

And somewhere along the way, the time slipped by.

Like all things—and all people—Spent Millennial has changed over those three years. It has taken different forms. Different rhythms. Different priorities.

But at its heart, the purpose has remained the same.

I started Spent Millennial as a response to a world that constantly asks us to do more, buy more, achieve more, optimize more, become more.

More. More. More.

I wanted a place to reflect on my own relationship with all of it—the spending, the striving, the pressure to keep up—and my desire to build a life that felt slower, simpler, and more intentional.

Not a life of deprivation.

A life of enough.

I wanted a place to write about spending less and living more.

To share what I was learning.

To build community around those ideas.

To create a soft place to land.

Of course, because of the time I started creating it in—I also created social media accounts for the blog.

That’s where people are, after all.

That’s where we consume information, discover new ideas, and connect with one another.

And, I, maybe naively,  thought maybe it could offer something different.

A small antidote to the endless stream of purchases, accomplishments, upgrades, and carefully curated versions of life that fill our feeds.

But over time, I noticed something.

The social media side of things often pulled me away from the very thing I was trying to create.

I found myself thinking about content more than experiencing the life I was living. 

Planning posts instead of being present.

Pausing moments to record them.

Looking for captions.

Thinking about what would perform well.

And then, I realized that this is not what I want it to be. 

Not because I don’t enjoy creating. I genuinely do.

I love storytelling.

I love sharing ideas.

I even enjoy making content.

But somewhere along the way, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted this space to be. For me or for others. 

What I love most isn’t the posting.

It’s the writing.

It’s sitting down once a week to reflect.

It’s making sense of life through words.

It’s sharing those reflections with whoever happens to stumble across them.

And if nobody does?

That’s okay too.

Because the writing itself matters.

The reflection matters.

The pause matters.

Blogs offer exactly what I hoped Spent Millennial would become in the first place.

They’re slower.

More thoughtful.

More generous.

Longer-form.

Less optimized.

They ask less from us while often giving more in return.

They allow us to consume less while connecting more deeply.

And perhaps that’s what this space has been trying to become all along. What it was always meant to be. 

So, three years later, here we are.

Where does the time go?

Thank you for being here.

Whether you’ve been reading since the beginning, found your way here recently, or simply stop by from time to time, thank you for spending time with me here.

My hope is that when you arrive here, you find a reason to slow down for a few minutes.

To reflect.

To notice.

To sit with what is instead of immediately reaching for what’s next.

Because there will always be more to do.

More to buy.

More to consume.

More to scroll.

More to become.

Too often, I think we try to fill our buckets while actively poking more holes in them. When if we simply set them down and give them time and space to collect what comes, they would end up filling themselves. 

Because sometimes there is value- peace, contentment, joy-  in simply being. And what a shame it would be to miss that while endlessly searching for what’s next. 

Until next week, take care, be well, and don’t forget to enjoy the pause.

Everett