I start each morning with coffee from a mug I threw myself, sitting on a coaster I carved because apparently I can’t buy anything normal anymore. This wasn’t a conscious decision—just happened over time, like most of the interesting things do.

My brain hunts for connections between ideas that probably shouldn’t go together, which makes conversations either fascinating or exhausting depending on your tolerance for tangents. As a kid, I once spent an entire day making mud bricks with neighborhood kids just because there was hay in a field and it seemed worth trying. No plan, no point, just the pleasure of following an impulse because it was there.

These days when I can’t sleep, I build elaborate fictional worlds in my head—whole storylines and characters that help me drift off. It’s the same impulse, really: making something from nothing because the materials are available and the urge feels right. I suspect most of life’s best discoveries come from giving ourselves permission to follow curiosity without needing to justify it first.

My Song: No Worries by Clear Conscience