For Me, For You

Welcome friends. It's lovely to see you.

Good morning, afternoon, or evening substackers. I am very, very new to this. I am also ignorant to the typical ways folks would share their work on this platform, and for the moment, I intend to stay ignorant in order to forge my own path here.

“Why?” you ask with baited breath, I’m sure.

Great question!! Well, I want to be more selfish and share my writing with reckless abandon and joy. I don’t think I have anything particularly profound to share, nor do I expect my takes on anything to cause earth-shattering paradigm shifts through the universe, though that would be sick as hell.

However, a few months ago, a relatively new friend of mine told me that one should create art for themselves alone and the ultimate price of said art is to share it. I believe they had gained this pearl of wisdom from some book, but I got it from them, so all the glory goes to my new friend :) .

Regardless, this sentiment has truly stuck with me. It was inspiring, no doubt, but I also had to come to terms with the fact that I am really bad/wanting to get better at both parts of said statement. See below:

1. One should create art for themselves

Maybe the scariest thing ever. Seems actually impossible and frankly, probably is. BUT, I have been attempting to face that fear in recent months and don’t tell anyone, but it can be really cool and freeing to just do art for yourself, even if you can only manage a little bit of it at a time.

2. The ultimate price of said art is to share it

I lied about the first thing. This is WAYYYYYY scarier, unfathomably so, and I haven’t really tried to face that fear yet, so…

here I am! doing it! woohoo!

I, like any writer, or anyone who shares anything, would love if this page popped off and we all got rich and famous together from it. But ultimately, this page will serve two purposes.

Firstly, this page is a vessel for me to get better at/used to/more comfortable with sharing my stuff and gaining confidence in my voice as an artist. Pretty simple there, and I’m in a place where I’m happy to provide myself with such an opportunity.

Secondly, in hopefully a cool and chill way, I would love if someone saw this page and was inspired to share their own art. Kind of an accountability buddy sort of thing. I am desperately trying to frame this in a way that isn’t outright saying “I want my art to inspire other people to make art” because that’s a bit too self-righteous for my taste.

All I’m trying to say is this, if you’re an artist or want to be an artist, and the “sharing your work” pool looks really cold, let this page be that random guy who jumps in and shouts out that the water’s fine. You don’t gotta jump in right away, or ever dip your toes in for that matter. But, I’ll be in the pool doing my best to keep it warm for you, just in case :) .

With all that housekeeping out of the way, welcome to For Me, For You! I will be sharing whatever I want, whenever I want, and if anything grabs you, how freaking awesome is that? There are really no rules, so I’m going to keep it as fun as possible.

Here is a poem I wrote a few hours ago. It came from a journal entry where a tiktok about including the ninth-grade version of yourself in a blunt rotation had me considering where/if ninth-grade Cam was poking around in 24-year-old Cam.

Nine years from ninth grade
nine more till 33
that's where I am, see?
the gray spot over there?

That's where I proudly stand
with as much gained as lost
an expansive gratitude
a better perspective of 

my roots, trunk, and where my branches could go

Utterly mystifying
it ticks onwards
in some ways similar
to a song

played ever so delicately
notes, days, sometimes weeks
measures months, and movements years
the piece comes together through expression

and trust that this life is mine
a symphonic sum of parts.
Which ones? Who knows?
likely all of them, somehow

For Me, For You,

Cam Kreitner

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