The End of Will’s Dumb Brain

Substack tells me this is my 200^th essay… that seems like a pretty good time to call it quits.

I started this experiment back on January 5^th, 2021. Back then, nobody had ever stormed the US Capitol (lol I still can’t believe it happened the very next day), Los Angeles had never gone through a hurricane and an earthquake in the same day, the Writers Guild of America hadn’t gone on strike since the Bush administration, and I’d never gotten engaged. It’s safe to say a lot has happened in the nearly 4 years I’ve written these weekly essays.

There’s been some amazing highs in the time I’ve been working on WDB: I fell in love with golf, I read (and reviewed) some incredible books, I’ve been to weddings, done road trips, and met freshly born babies. I watched a million hours of sports and got my heart broken by the Dodgers, the Packers, and the Lakers (sometimes all in the same month). I got to sit in the stands and watch transcendent talent and stumble down the street with 30 of my friends on the way to Dodger Stadium.

I lived in a tiny apartment right over the freeway with my then-girlfriend, I moved to a slightly less tiny apartment a few blocks away from the freeway with that same then-girlfriend. I went to Italy and asked her if she might be interested in marrying me (she said yes!). I basked in the glow of being engaged and wrote about finally starting to plan a wedding.

It wasn’t all roses though. You all, my wonderful readers, were with me as I dealt with some of the toughest days of my adult life. After a years-long pandemic disrupted the entertainment industry, the second-longest strike in WGA history caused me to reconsider my career and eventually change paths entirely. My family’s sweet, perfect dog Sophie crossed the rainbow bridge and forced me to think about the nature of loving a pet knowing that you’ll live longer than they will. I also had to say goodbye to the only grandparent I ever knew, the unbelievably wonderful and universally beloved, Ruthie Peterman.

The period in which I’ve worked on these essays has simultaneously been the most joyous and the most trying time of my life…but that’s just kind of life, isn’t it? There’s never a time that’s just boring. There’s always something going on and that’s what this experience has taught me: there are big ups and downs in every phase of your life but it’s also filled with tiny victories like falling in love with a book or a show or just remembering to savor a particularly beautiful sunset. It also has those little moments of frustration like chasing a fly across your entire apartment or getting a parking ticket. All of these moments combine to make a life and if you can take a step back and look at it from a different perspective, you can write a weekly blog about it.

So, yes, this is the end of Will’s Dumb Brain, at least for now (If I’ve learned one thing, there’s no telling what the future holds). I couldn’t have kept going for these almost-four-years without all of you. Your likes, comments, shares, and views kept me writing when I felt like nobody cared. If I can leave you with one request before I go, please keep supporting independent writers out there. It doesn’t have to be monetarily but just by reading, sharing, liking, and commenting you can make all the difference.

And if I might toot my own horn just once before I close up shop, not once in 200 essays, in almost 4 years, through sickness and injury, through work and strikes, through road trips and international vacations, I never missed a single Tuesday.

Thanks for reading folks. I’ll see you around <3