Reflection: Birdwatching
June 13, 2026

The algorithm is trying its best to get me into birdwatching. I will resist. Not because I’m against being able to identify a Ruby-crowned Kinglet but because I am determined to choose my own hobbies organically. Let me just be in the moment. Let me listen to Arcade Fire in peace. Let me be an unplugged millennial with my friends and see where the wind takes us. But that’s a tough task because I just scrolled through ten thousand hours of the most stimulating content and I have no dopamine leftover for life’s slow pace.

I’m back at the taqueria with my friends and a televangelist is on the screen with way too much hairspray. Strangely enough that comforts me. She quotes Jesus when he said foxes have holes and birds have nests. Oh no, was Jesus into birdwatching? That’s out of context and so am I. My stomach yearns for another taco but the prices have gone up. A bird lands on the windowsill begging for crumbs. My friend wants to “shoo the sparrow away” but I correct him saying that it’s actually an Orange-crowned Warbler. “Who am I becoming?” I wonder as I check my phone again.