opening yourself to support - by Spencer Chang

At the Are.na spring cleaning I hosted, we discovered that we all shared one thing in common: none of us had a full-time job. Instead, P & T compared themselves to "professional sidemissioners," people who always have a project but never have a job. Most people are on a side quest these days (or yearning for the freedom to pursue them), whether that "side quest" is their life's work or simply some time to rest from the daily grind of a 9-5. With the continuing loss of trust in any sort of institution to provide a stable existence, much less a nurturing one, lots of us are in some form of employment instability or looking for an exit. Everyone wants to be free. When I started my "professional" sidequest last year, I phrased it as a chapter of independence. I was breaking free from my corporate bonds and making space for my creative desires. People I met commended my bravery to be nontraditional and commit to myself. There's a romanticism in the "myth of the lone genius" that lives on in

At the Are.na spring cleaning I hosted, we discovered that we all shared one thing in common: none of us had a full-time job. Instead, P & T compared themselves to "professional sidemissioners," people who always have a project but never have a job. Most people are on a side quest these days (or yearning for the freedom to pursue them), whether that "side quest" is their life's work or simply some time to rest from the daily grind of a 9-5. With the continuing loss of trust in any sort of institution to provide a stable existence, much less a nurturing one, lots of us are in some form of emplo