Announcement!!
Vyra just released our MCP connector - so you can now connect Vyra to your Claude, Cursor, or Codex/ChatGPT account and edit videos directly from there.
My co-founder and I are SO excited to have this out and in your hands. Thank you for joining our waitlist - click here for an exclusive, extended trial so you can experience Vyra for an extra week on us. We can’t wait to see what you create.
And here’s a demo if you’re curious to see what it’s capable of doing…
Now, back to our regular programming :)
pt. 1 - childhood [ignorance] is bliss
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Ah, the question of questions, which I once answered with colorful choices: “professional star-gazer!” “chocolate taste-tester!!” “artist-influencer!!!”
But when I got to college, reality dawned upon me when I realized that the only seemingly “good” career paths were…
doctor, lawyer, investment banker, and consultant.
Of course, this is NOT true. There are thousands of jobs out there which do not fall under this limited selection.
But somewhere along the way, from childhood into young adulthood, “reality dawned upon me.” Personally, this phrase translates to “societal expectation / economic situation / the allure of prestige dawned upon me,” often at the cost of what we once dreamed.
I know this to be true, because I’d given up on my dreams in the pursuit of becoming a finance bro (aka becoming “respectable” post-grad and putting myself in a position to “do well” - what does that even mean anyway??), even though reading the job descriptions of these supposedly coveted internships made me want to rip my hair out and cry.
So what is it about childhood dreaming that I’d lost?
pt. 2 - childhood = unbotheredness, untetheredness, and pure-soul-ness
unbotheredness - children just don’t care! Perhaps this is how us humans learn so quickly at the beginning stages of life. When we learn to walk, it starts with the inevitable failures - falling down over and over. It is definitely hard to get up on our stubby little legs for the first time! But we’re such infants…we don’t overthink it. We just fall down and get back up again, and it’s a simple loop until we learn to walk.
untetheredness - there’s not yet an attachment to the things that other people tell us to be attached to. Not yet an attachment to money, “success,” fame, a 10-year plan filled out with Roth IRAs and stock options - instead, we listen to just what we want at that moment.
pure-soul-ness - they feel to their full capacity, with no masks nor filters. You know when a child is sad, or mad, or excited, or scared, because it’s written all over their face, their body language, their movement. Before we, as children, undergo the conditioning and domestication of society, we are pure soul; there is no mismatch between the internal and external.
It’s not a perfect recipe to live life if I tell you to just pretend to be 3 again, but often when we grow up, we sacrifice the things we like doing on a day-to-day basis in favor of the deferred life plan, where we do things we don’t like instead for promise of future payouts. We sacrifice listening to our inner child for the pressures of what “should” be, then proceed to find ourselves miserable, living someone else’s life.
And in an era of nonchalance, of looking effortlessly cool, and of curated feeds, trying hard seems cringe. But let us draw inspiration from our younger counterparts - are they so cringe for trying to swing on the monkey bars for the seventh time? And when they get it, when their face lights up with the delight of hard-earned success - is it not just a joy to watch?
pt. 3 - so what?
I started posting content to listen to my inner child.
She had always dreamed of becoming an influencer!
I think she’d be flabbergasted to see how things played out.
Reflecting on just over a year of getting into content creation - it has changed my life drastically. I closed the door on finance (it was never meant for me!), and I’m now a startup founder, working on video editing tools for content. I get to wake up each day excited (albeit a little scared / nervous / stressed sometimes too), getting to write to lovely people like you.
As I venture out into the throes of life, I hope I can align myself with what child-sulan wanted, and make her proud.
Our dreams are waiting!
quote by H.G. Wells, image from Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)
until next week~
Sulan :)
@sulansart
P.S. I understand the immense privilege of even being able to consider my dreams. If your circumstances don't allow for it, I hear you. But if it's within your power - listen, even just a little, to what your younger self wanted.
P.P.S. Try Vyra out for yourself! Reply to this email with thoughts, feedback, or just to say hi - I read every message :)