I​’ve written before about the importance of deciding to be finished.

But what comes after completing something? Publishing it, telling the world about it?

M​y single was released over a year ago now. And I am now far enough past it to hear it properly. By that I mean, I hear my mistakes without aching to finish them. And I hear the good parts without them being drowned by what I wish I could change. And I can see clearly what I would do differently.

I​t’s beyond just being finished now.

I​’m not going to touch it again. I have other projects that have my attention and my passion right now, and I don’t need to look backwards on parts of my life I would like to redo.

S​o what do we do with these things then? Do we forget that we did them, then get surprised by their existence years later? Been there.

I​ was listening to my iTunes library a while ago, and something came on that I just couldn’t place. Turns out, it was an art song I had written during my degree. I had spent hours upon hours on it, recorded it with a friend, talked about it with my teachers. And after all that, I forgot it.

W​e need a happy medium. Between complete forgetfulness and obsessively dwelling. Where we can let go of what we made in the past, while still being able to learn from it.

I​ don’t think I’ve found that place yet. I’m still looking for it, and I’ll let you all know if I find it.

Happy creating!

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Jena Ren, 2023