we'll never be royals

Long time no see! I've been gone so long that Blogger has changed its entire interface and I don't even know how to make posts anymore! I don't really know what to say about the state of the world right now. I certainly don't have anything insightful to add, but if there's one thing quarantine has taught me it's that sometimes it's enough just to exist. You don't always have to be an intellectual. 

Like everyone else, I have been mourning what we've lost in the past year because of the pandemic. Sometimes it gets to be too much to bear. But I have been lucky in so many ways. And a silver lining is that I have had much more time to focus on personal projects. For years, I have wanted to start a micronation, and quarantine finally gave me the time to do it. 

A micronation is a small entity that declares sovereignty from its larger nation. Some of the most famous examples include Sealand and Molossia. The micronational community is full of eccentrics and visionaries, and I've loved watching it from afar these past few years. This year, I became so frustrated with the macronations of the world for their failure to deal with the pandemic in an efficient way. I also felt a bit lost during quarantine...without purpose, like I hadn't accomplished what I set out to accomplish this year. 

These feelings ultimately culminated in the establishment of my own micronation: the Nation of Paracosmia. You can visit it here: https://paracosmia.wixsite.com/home I had so much fun putting everything together, from the land claim itself, to the website, to the products in the souvenir shop. It occupied most of my time during the fall, and I'm happy to say that the January launch went wonderfully! 

I hope to grow the nation further in the months to come. I'm relieved to have an escape from the dismal outside world, and I'm proud of the work that I've done on Paracosmia. It has given me an outlet of self-expression, as well as a community, during these bleak times. Previously, even if I had the time to do it,  I might have thought that this endeavor was too silly, that people would think I was juvenile for founding a pretend nation full of pixies and unicorns. 

But during this past year, I have also learned that being hyper self-conscious doesn't really get you anything in the end. I'm so sick of our post ironic (or whatever) world, where no one can admit to liking something genuinely, everything is disguised in this cloak of sarcasm and insincerity. I've certainly been guilty of this in the past too. But these days I really want to kill off the last of my self-awareness and live freely, and buy unicorn stickers and roll-on glitter if I want to. I aspire to have the confidence of Tommy Wiseau and Jaden Smith. Founding Paracosmia was a step in the right direction. Thank you to whoever reads this. I hope you and yours are well.