Echoes of a Journey
A Living Journal
Join me on my journey through all the ups and downs of life. I do not shy away from sharing my thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
Echoes of a Journey: Another Year Gone By
Floating. That’s what 2025 felt like. Not moving forward or backward, just suspended. Days passed, then weeks, then somehow an entire year. I streamed. I taught classes. I wrote a novel. On paper, it looks productive, even impressive. In reality, it all blurred together, rushing by so quickly that I’m still trying to figure out…
Echoes of a Journey: Late Reflections on Japan, Where to Go Now
It’s been a while since I dived into Echoes of a Journey. Life has a way of pulling you in a dozen directions at once, and sometimes the past just sits there, waiting for you to turn around and really look at it. We’re coming up on two years since my brief time in Japan.…
Rewinding to Move Forward
Since COVID, I’ve lived with a screen always within reach. Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video. Each one a glowing portal to somewhere else. Somewhere easier. Somewhere quieter. When boredom crept in, I didn’t wrestle with it. I streamed it away. A show to fill the silence. A movie to dull the ache. A binge to…
August Update & Announcement!
Update: I changed the schedule! Please see below! I’ve started a Patreon. If you click on the World of Kaladoum tab up top, it will take you to the Patreon! Due to this, my stories will no longer be posted on the website. Instead, all stories will find life via Patreon. The generous support of…
Changes to the Website
This is a general update post for this week! I have a lot brewing in the background that’s going to shake a few things up as I take my lack of unemployment by the head and control my own journey a bit better. Now, onward to the update! That’s about it for the update! I…
XBOX: Lost Faith
Last week, Microsoft laid off 9,000 employees. The layoffs hit the Xbox brand especially hard. Studios shuttered. Games canceled. Familiar calls to fire Phil Spencer echoed across social media, an almost ritualistic response at this point that, while warranted, will ultimately fizzle out. Amid it all that confusion, frustration, and chaos, Phil had the nerve…
Happy Fourth of July
I was born into a military family. My grandfather on my mother’s side was career Air Force. Several cousins, uncles, aunts, are in or served in some branch of the military. My dad, if he had not been hit by a car on a bike ride, would have been career Air Force as well. Several…
Love is an odd thing
I once had a partner tell me I made everything feel like a romance movie. The highs and lows. I could make her laugh and cry in a single moment. But, there is always the but, she said there was something artificial in the way I held myself. As if I was performing instead of…
Pride
Happy Pride, Friends Pride Month is a time when members of the LGBTQ+ community come together to celebrate who they are and honor the legacy of the Stonewall riots. Truth be told, I’ve never been someone who actively celebrates or reflects on Pride Month. Sure, I’ll share the usual tweet or Facebook post to say,…
Value in being jobless
Finding value in yourself is important when you’re jobless. The monster of doubt on your shoulder can often feel overwhelming but know that ‘being jobless’ is temporary. I constantly have to remind myself of that as the days tick on. It’s hard to pull yourself from the muck of depression when job hunting. You apply…
Ah, the job hunt!
This week, I have little in the way of updates. Nothing too exciting has happened. Nor has anything bad. In the two weeks since I’ve been unemployed, I’m fairly happy. My dogs seem to enjoy me being around more. My kitten is driving me crazy. They are my lifelines and keep me grounded as I…
Unproductive productive writing reflection!
No Lavender Knight Chapter III or Musings of a Streamer this month. Time got away from me. Laziness held me hostage. Unemployment depression destroyed me. Insert other half-hearted excuses, but the truth is I didn’t work on either. My focus drifted towards other projects. My scriptwriting obsession called me away. Back in April, I stumbled…
An End, A Beginning
It’s over. For better or worse. I’m no longer employed. I have no job or major source of income. I have a few hundred dollars saved, but not enough if something drastic happens. My streamer life flounders. Writing brings comfort, but I debate: self-publish or chase after traditional routes? I feel liberated and terrified. I…
Scriptwriting Love
I have a burning desire to write scripts. In the fall semester, when I taught a playwriting class, I quickly realized I missed theatre. Thankfully, I could stay within the theatre sphere by teaching sound design in the spring. Since the fall semester, my love of scriptwriting returned. The passion the students showed was inspiring.…
Running
Have you felt the burning desire to leave? It’s a feeling I often get. In my commute to work, I daydream I drive onward. I wonder what waits for me on the horizon. Would anyone care I disappeared? This feeling began long ago, when I was fresh out of high school and smitten with a…
End of Semester Check In
Next week is finals week! Well, my students don’t really have finals, just projects they have to turn in. My sound design students have to design a full show of their choice. My creative writing folks have a portfolio that requires a new piece of writing (can be fiction, script, poems, or whatever else they…
Semester’s End Draws Near
I’m counting down the days until the end of the semester. It feels far away and so close. Our perception of time moves fast and slow. Some events in our lives are so significant they feel like they happened yesterday. There are days that feel longer than other days with no meaningful moment to remember.…
Faith, and Seeking Peace
Lately, I’ve been grappling with my perception of religion. I grew up Catholic. My dad’s side of the family is all Catholic. My mom’s side is Catholic with a bit of Southern Baptist. I never related, nor practiced, any of it. I went to church due to my parents. When I got older, they gave…
Comfort in an Ending
Breathe in. Breathe out. The semester is winding down. I will soon find myself back on the unemployment train, on a track to parts unknown. Oddly, this doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. In the past, the idea of being jobless ate at me. What should I do? Where do I…
A Change of Writing Plans
Back in December 2024, I laid out a plan to share multiple short stories that take place in the world I’m building for a much larger project (a multi-book series). The goal remains the same, mostly. However, The Lavender Knight grew into something longer, and more ambitious, than I initially intended. While not a full…
Jesús M. Rivera 