May issue | proper summer break, slow vs fast, and monthly rec(c)

Whether you're a beautiful stranger or a human I know, I'm equally glad you're here. Now pour yourself a glass of your favorite liquid – hope it's wine, but no pressure – and let's get started.

I’m typing this intro paragraph while sitting on a sun-warmed wooden deck of Little Lunch – a local coffee shop at the corner of Brooks and Pacific Ave in Venice, CA. The sky is cloudy grey because June Gloom (now I know it’s just as real as San Francisco’s Carl the Fog), but I can still feel it’s almost summer.

Speaking of summer, it looks like this year I’m about to get a good old summer break. May 31 marked the last day of me doing content strategy for one of the top meditation apps out there, so now I’m enjoying (and worrying over) a period of unemployment. My friends and family say I should make the most of this time, take some proper rest, and figure out what it is I really wanna do. I say that I couldn’t agree more, but then anxiety takes over and I find myself scrolling LinkedIn job listings with the level of enthusiasm you can only see in a 18-year-old guy who’s just registered on Tinder. I guess I’m just not used to having all the time of this world to myself. And maybe this period is a beautiful opportunity to change this.

Idea of the month.

Introducing a new addition to the structure of probably, your favorite newsletter. And it is exactly what the name suggests – one idea I came across in the previous month that I found fascinating, helpful, and – worth sharing.

Slow is the new fast. Because slow is smooth. And smooth is fast.

This is something I heard from my favorite fitness trainer Alex Silver-Fagan and it’s been haunting me in the best way possible. Whenever I start blaming myself for not making enough progress or not making it fast enough, I remind myself of these words and it works wonders.

Slow is intentional. Slow is sustainable. Slow is beautiful. Slow is fast. So next time you catch yourself running way too fast, consider taking a stop, catching a breath, and trying to go slow instead. Just for a change. As a tiny little experiment. Try and see what happens.

Monthly rec(s)

To read.

I don’t have a book to recommend you this month because, frankly, everything I’ve read in May turned out to be a bit overrated. Does it mean I’m leaving you without a good reading rec this month? Of course not.

Earlier in May, I came across a fascinating read on The New Yorker. It’s not the most optimistic piece of reading per se, but life is not always unicorns and rainbows either.

‘The Precarious Future of Big Sur’s Highway 1’ by Emily Witt discusses the terrifyingly tangible consequences of climate change we have no option to close our eyes to anymore. It is hardly the first or the last good material written on the topic, but something about this article hit me hard.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that I was lucky to see this part of Pacific Coast more than once and it is by far the most beautiful road I’ve ever driven, or that I personally know people who were stuck in Big Sur due to mudslides earlier this year, or that Big Sur is not just any other part of the coast but the one Californians (myself included) hold so dear.

Most facts and predictions are both sad and scary, but somehow the tone still holds some hope and even humor. It’s a great piece! Go take a read.

“When I looked up Bixby Bridge on Instagram, I saw dozens of iterations of the same photo: women in styled hair and leggings gazing out at the sea, the arch of the bridge curving behind them.”

“No cliff erosion is really a surprise when you’re a geologist because that’s what cliffs along the coast do.”

“The scene reminded me of Malibu, that other famous stretch of Highway 1, where the hoi polloi must study the intricacies of public-access points hidden between multimillion-dollar homes in order to go to a beach that state law insists is public.”

To watch: Another round (2020)

I’ve had this one on my list ever since its release in late 2020. And yet something would always stand on my way. Ironically, I ended up watching this movie on a small screen of a plane on my way to NYC. And even though both sound and video quality left much to be desired (shoutout to cheap airplane headphones and old-ish screens on Delta planes), I enjoyed the movie so much I cannot help but recommend it to you.

The premise is hilarious: a group of school teachers decide to run an experiment based on a theory that humans are born with a blood alcohol content (BAC) deficiency of 0.05% percent. The hypothesis being that correcting this ‘bug’ of mother nature makes people more relaxed, creative and therefore successful in both professional and personal lives.

I’ll say nothing more except for this: watching it will likely make you crave a glass of your favorite drink, so don’t hit that play bottom until you mix yourself an alcohol beverage of choice. And don’t forget that excessive alcohol consumption may cause harm to your body and mind.

To listen to: Billy’s new album ‘Hit me hard and soft’

I’m hardly the first (or the last) person to say this but Billy’s recent album ‘Hit me hard and soft’ is so good. Interestingly, it wasn’t love at first listen to me. I played it from beginning to end the day it was released and even though I enjoyed the experience I couldn’t name a single song that resonated with me deeply. Funny enough, I couldn’t stop listening to it either. So it became my go-to album when I needed a background music while working or driving and I guess it’s been growing on me. Now I have five tracks I’m obsessed with (‘CHIHIRO’, ‘L’AMOUR DES MA VIE’, ‘THE GREATEST’, ‘BLUE’, and ‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’) but I genuinely love every single one on this album.

To follow

I have to be honest: I have little to no interest in social media these days. I don’t know what happened to the version of me that would post one reel a day and write a long caption for every IG post in my feed, but something did happen and I just don’t have it in my anymore. I find most of the content repetitive, superfluous, and artificial. I’m tired of bloggers and content creators following trends and using the same sound to get more exposure. I guess it’s just the price I pay for spending too much on TikTok and IG earlier, but for now I am so fed up with it I can hardly force myself to post some good pics from our recent trip to NYC.

That being said, sometimes I come across accounts that make me feel warm from the inside. And that’s one of the reasons I still like social media – because sometimes your recommendations feed algorithms actually serve you something amazing. Here’s my recent obsession – the works of Slovakian illustrator David Pogran.

Follow @david.pogran for a regular portion of wholesome, heartwarming art.

And that’s a wrap (but only for this month!)

Last month I mentioned this newsletter is going to be either killed or reborn. Since you’re reading this, chances are high I landed on the latter. For that, I have to thank a few people who reached out to me and said they wish I’d keep writing. You, people, are amazing. You gave me a boost of confidence I did not realize I needed.

That being said, with a couple of tweaks in design and structure (more on this a bit later), we’re entering the second year of ‘Probably, your favorite newsletter.’ And I say we because it’s only really a letter if you have a name to fill the recipient field with. And I am so so lucky to have not just one but many.

So thank you for sticking around. You guys are the main reason I don’t quit.♦