# i can be new

*!!!*

By [tinyrainboot](https://paragraph.com/@tinyrainboot) · 2024-03-28

internet diary

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sometimes a message comes to you through art just when you need it. there's [a piece by @hillergoodspeed](https://www.instagram.com/p/CUZBuWOrT8S/) that's been cemented in my brain since i first saw it a few years ago. it's a simple green wash with a figure laying in what i assume represents a grassy field.

_i can change,_ it says.

_i can be something else_  
_i can be different_  
_i can be new._

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d08602da1b37c0ec247e6237ebda7f6f.png)

artist: [@hillergoodspeed](https://www.instagram.com/hillergoodspeed/)

sometimes the most simple and obvious truths resonate the most deeply. i was at a very transitory point in my life when this work slid across my feed, and its text became a mantra i would whisper during difficult battles with myself.

the work to figure out what kind of person you want to be is a lifelong project, and it takes a good amount of initiative and agency. somehow i had never realized this before: that you can _decide_ who you want to be. that your personality is not hard-coded.

[

![](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d00001e027fb4d50cc18d640de32585c3)

https://spotify.com

Blueshift
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Listen to Blueshift on Spotify. All India Radio · Song · 2015.





](https://open.spotify.com/track/240GuBoxZchQHrKpc9z5pP?si=3a715172d22e4cb6)

i'm hard on myself, but i am trying. trying to give myself the chance to actively decide what kind of person to be. to let myself be reborn any time i need it. to give myself the grace to know i don't have to be fixed in my ways.

the world is as flexible as we are, and we can change whenever we want.

_yes_, _i can be different. i can be new._

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*Originally published on [tinyrainboot](https://paragraph.com/@tinyrainboot/i-can-be-new)*