Do you ever drag your feet on something you know you will enjoy? That you know will be good for you? Do you also experience that strange mental wall that has should scrawled all over it? Should take it down. Should move forward.
And yes I’m talking about the good-for-you-productive category of things here — like meditating or exercising — things that definitely make me happier if I can just start.
But what is vexing is that I’m also talking about the just fun, distinctly unproductive things — like reading a new book or watching a new TV show I know I will enjoy.
Here’s my recent example: She-Ra. Netflix’s updated She-Ra original series came out last fall and I’ve known about it from the beginning. It was around the same time Voltron was wrapping up and was the natural next series for me to jump into . . . but I didn’t. I added it to my watchlist. Multiple times in the last year I told myself I was going to start it right then, and didn’t. I rewatched other series, watched new series, kept reading Voltron fanfiction, and then rewatched all of Voltron for the hell of it (starting that rewatch when I had the first episode of She-Ra queued up on my screen, no less).
So what was my problem? She-Ra wasn’t supposed to be anything but amazing though I knew little to nothing about the plot. And I had heard that it had great queer representation. It wasn’t even that many episodes!
Eventually, as I knew I would, I felt the spark and started a week or so ago, wrapping up the latest season this morning. And yes. It’s fucking amazing. Of course, it is. Like the slow burn queer friends-enemies-lovers of my dreams with magic and darkness and high stakes and like a very good amount of kidnapping for my interest level. The whole retelling is unapologetically queer.
There’s a lesson in this somewhere that I have been slow to learn:
- That I get easily stuck on the starting line
- That I should always listen to my friends’ recommendations immediately
- That I should accept that I start things at the right time for me
Some combination of the three.
My point is, go watch She-Ra, please.
With Love,
Natalie