M I N T

Julia Grosso Day

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 16:00:00 -0500

Orange Is The New Black

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:07:00 -0500

The need to enjoy the simple things in life.

Strike Out

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 10:03:00 -0500

Weather Forecast

Birds Can’t Fly In A Cage

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:17:00 -0500

This weekend has been an eventful one.

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 10:20:00 -0500

The rains didn’t seem as bad as expected. Tried some new Puerto Rican food. Spent my late afternoon with Hank chasing the high tides and chilling at the lake as usual.

Hank Barking at the Waves

It was also exciting to see that the boat which has been stuck on the beach for a couple of weeks now had finally been moved from the sand into the water with much needed help. We’ve watched for weeks the unsuccessful attempts by the owner and his friends trying to move it. The boat is still docked there though because of the high tides.

On the soccer front the MLS resumed after going on break for the World Cup and Kelly got us tickets to go watch Chicago Fire play Charlotte FC since they had just signed Polish striker Robert Lewandowski who played for European giants Barcelona before moving to Chicago. It was a spectacular night with many fans trooping to Soldier Field to catch a glimpse of him and he didn’t disappoint. Chicago went down 0-1 but as the football gods will have it the star striker equalized with a clinical finish and also scored the winning goal to make the final score 2-1 to Chicago Fire. Welcome to Chicago Lewandowski and even though he didn’t play for Manchester United at least I get to see him play for Chicago. The rains didn’t come pouring as feared which made it even better. You don’t want to be in the pouring cold at Soldier Field. I speak from experience after being soaked in the rain last summer during the English Premier League Summer Series.

The traffic was terrible with Lollapalooza happening causing parts of Michigan to be closed to accommodate the crowds after it closed. Lucky for me I bike so I rode my “Lambo” which is the electric Divvy bike through the crowd of 1000s on the way back to Lincoln Park.

The sunrise on Sunday was as gorgeous as always. “Never Miss The Sunrise” will continue to be my mantra.

Why I Started Writing Again

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:18:00 -0500

I’ve been thinking for a long time about what to do with the thoughts in my head and the experiences I’ve collected over the years.

For years, mentors and friends have encouraged me to create content for social media. I resisted, not because I thought it was a bad idea, but because I’ve always valued having a personal life. I know how easily the line between living and creating content can disappear.

For most of my adult life, my work and personal life have naturally overlapped. Knowing how social media is designed to capture our attention, I’ve always been cautious. I never wanted to reach a point where I experienced life through a camera lens instead of my own eyes.

Years ago, I bought my first professional camera (I had one as I kid I didn’t buy) and decided to travel the world, capturing the people, places, and moments I encountered. I shared my photos on my personal Instagram before eventually creating a dedicated travel page. Over time, though, I realized I had become more focused on creating content for the internet than truly experiencing the places I visited.

The Turning Point; Winter Vacation 2017

One of the perks of living in China is that when winter arrives, it’s easy to take a short, affordable trip to the warm tropical countries of Southeast Asia.

That winter, I decided to spend my break in Thailand after my classmate Fern, who is from Thailand, spent the entire semester telling me about her home.

My trip was split between Bangkok and Phuket. As usual, I was traveling alone. During a day trip to Phi Phi Island, I met another solo traveler named Steve, an American who had recently graduated from college. Since we were the only solo travelers in our group, we naturally tagged along together throughout the day.

Afterward, we decided to hang out. We stopped by my hotel so I could change clothes before heading to his hostel in one of Phuket’s busiest areas.

As soon as we walked into my hotel, Steve looked around and asked why I was spending so much money on a hotel as a young solo traveler. Then he looked at my suitcase and asked why I had packed so many clothes and shoes.

I explained that I needed different outfits for each day because I wanted good pictures for Instagram.

He laughed.

“You only need one good picture of yourself at a landmark if you want to prove to the world you were there,” he said. “The rest should be for you.”

He went on to explain that I could save money by staying in hostels, meet more people my age, and spend less time worrying about appearances. His philosophy was simple. You travel to experience a place, not to take pictures of your hotel or the swimming pool for people back home.

When we got to his hostel, I struck up a conversation with another traveler while waiting for him in the lobby. Within minutes I understood exactly what Steve meant. The hostel felt alive. People from different countries were sharing stories, recommending destinations, and making spontaneous plans together. It was an experience I would’ve missed had I stayed isolated in my hotel.

Later over dinner, Steve shared another piece of advice that changed how I traveled.

Pack less.

If you need clothes, buy them where you’re visiting.

Looking back, it seems obvious. At the time, it completely changed how I approached travel. I started carrying less, spending less, and experiencing more.

More importantly, it changed how I thought about social media.

Instagram Isn’t Reality

Back then, the only thing I consistently posted on Instagram Stories was my morning and evening walks with Nani, my first dog.

One day, a friend who lived in Accra, Ghana, over 7,000 miles away from Hangzhou, sent me a message asking why all I ever did was spend time with my dog. He suggested I should get out more and enjoy life.

I was stunned.

That morning I had taken Nani for a walk before heading out to meet my Chinese friend Allen and his girlfriend Claire at Reading Tree, one of our favorite coffee shops. After brunch, we moved to Chen Coffee, owned by one of Allen’s family friends. Later that afternoon I met another friend for a movie, had dinner afterward, wandered around window shopping, then returned home to walk Nani again before going to bed.

The only thing I shared publicly was the walk with my dog and other cool pictures.

How could someone who lived over 7000+ miles away believe they knew how I lived simply because of a few Instagram Stories?

I almost got upset before realizing something.

He wasn’t judging my life.

He was judging the tiny fraction of it that I chose to show.

I laughed, sent him a voice note explaining how my day had actually gone, and we both had a good laugh about it.

Living in China made posting to Instagram even less important to me. Every time I wanted to update Instagram, I first had to turn on multiple VPNs to figure out which one actually worked. Most of the time they worked better over Wi-Fi than cellular data anyway.

Social media simply wasn’t worth that much effort.

It also taught me something I’ll never forget.

Social media distorts reality.

People form opinions about your entire life based on a few carefully selected moments. In many ways, we do the same thing with celebrities. Everything we know about actors, musicians, athletes, and influencers comes through a carefully curated lens. We mistake a highlight reel for a complete person.

That realization changed how I viewed both social media and the people on it.

Not long afterward, my mom called me because one of her friends had seen a photo I posted from a business trip in Shanghai.

It was nothing more than a picture of the skyline.

Somehow, that became evidence that I was “living life” and spending money.

My mom wasn’t upset with me. She simply asked me to be careful because people often create stories about your life from a single photo.

When Instagram Became My Resume

Years later, during COVID, I found myself back in Ghana. December 2019

One day my cousin asked me if I had actually gone to school in China.

I honestly thought he was joking.

His reasoning?

He had never seen pictures of my university on Instagram. My cousin didn’t stop at questioning whether I had gone to school in China. He also questioned why I wasn’t working or looking for a job.

In his mind, if I had really graduated, I should have found a job by then.

What he never did was ask me what I was actually doing.

What if I had a business? What if I was preparing for graduate school? What if I simply had a different path than the one he imagined?

Instead of asking questions, assumptions filled in the blanks.

Then his father made matters worse by giving me unsolicited advice about what I should be doing with my life. I remember feeling furious. Not because they disagreed with my choices, but because they had already decided what my life looked like without ever having a conversation with me.

I told my parents about it afterward. My mom, understandably, was worried. My sister, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less. She simply told me to ignore the noise.

As COVID continued, so did my wandering. I spent my days at an Uncles’ beach house, watching sunrises with the dogs, reading, thinking, and trying to make sense of what the world had become.

Ironically, every photo I shared on Instagram only fueled more assumptions. I was purposely adding fuel to the fire.

I finally got admitted to Illinois Institute, I was probably the happiest person in the world. Thank goodness Illinois Tech didn’t admit me based on my Instagram posts. They looked at my application, transcripts, and degree certificate instead. However as the lockdown and embassy backlog issues compounded I had to defer my admission for a year and ended up traveling to another country just for my visa.

That is a different story for another day.

As you can imagine my dog posts quadrupled on Instagram. I was just taking the piss out of people at this point. What made matters worse was I wasn’t angry anymore when getting unsolicited advice. I rather stayed quiet and laughed and nodded my head. I looked like a crazy boy who was lost and was wasting his life. Only if they knew.

That entire experience grounded me. It enforced the need for me to separate my real life from the version of it people create online.

Before moving to Chicago in August 2022, I made a promise to myself, and to my mom. I would focus on graduate school, not Instagram.

I kept that promise.

I stopped posting on my personal Instagram altogether. The only account I occasionally updated was one of my photography pages, which eventually evolved into Mint Creative Studios after one of my professors noticed my pictures during a class presentation. That page also ended up being the page that started Mint Magazine.

From August 2022 until June 2025, my personal Instagram was essentially silent.

Almost three years.

My next post wasn’t a vacation.

It wasn’t a meal.

It wasn’t a random life update.

It was my graduation.

I captioned it simply:

HOUDINI.

Like the famous illusionist, I had disappeared, only to reappear years later holding a STEM master’s degree.

The funny part is I almost didn’t attend graduation.

After everything that happened during COVID, I had always imagined walking across the stage with my parents in the audience. They had sacrificed so much for me over the years.

Unfortunately, visa restrictions made it impossible for them to attend.

Without them there, I didn’t feel like walking.

I had already decided not to claim my guest tickets.

Then one afternoon, while Kaya and I were planning her graduation photos, Harper and Ivan asked me when mine would be.

I told them I wasn’t going.

Harper convinced me otherwise.

I emailed the school asking if I could still receive guest tickets even though I had missed the deadline.

On the morning of graduation, Ivan and Hank took my graduation photos. Chelsea drove us to the Riverwalk before the ceremony, and afterward we met Clint, Harper, and Sophie.

Hearing them cheer when my name was called was bittersweet.

It wasn’t the graduation I had imagined years earlier, but it reminded me that family isn’t always defined by blood. Sometimes it’s the people who simply choose to show up.

Why I’m Writing Again

Why did I decide to start blogging again in 2026?

Because I’ve matured and lived enough life to know that I have a lot to share. This time around, though, I recognize that my desire to write is a selfish one. I’m doing it for myself. I need an outlet to put my thoughts and experiences into words.

I was talking to my “twin,” a friend who happens to share my birthday. We’re identical in many ways, and she’s an incredible writer. We realized we’d both been fighting the same internal battles, but we also came to the conclusion that we needed to do this for ourselves—not because we’re seeking validation, but because we simply have a need to write.

Harper helped me set up this microblog sometime last year, but I finally decided to rebuild it with Claude. This is me holding myself accountable and doing what I want, on my own terms and without pressure.

Content creation is relevant in today’s world in ways that didn’t exist years ago, and nobody can deny that. Harper has told me several times, “Mint, you need to show people the things you’re doing outside of the office. Show people Ghana. Show the world." Nik has also encouraged me over the years to share what I’m learning and teach the things I know.

They’re probably right.

But that’s where I start questioning myself.

Do I really want the pressure that comes with being visible? Do I want to feel like I have to present a perfect life or act as though I have everything figured out when, internally, I don’t always feel that way?

The lines become blurred again.

Is Knod my life, or is it simply a company I’m building? Where do I draw that line? Are my stories meant to be shared, or are some of them meant to stay mine? Are the things I’m building, the ideas I constantly think about, and the thoughts sitting in my notebooks actually worth sharing?

I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that the clock doesn’t stop for anyone, and life moves fast. The older I get, the more I realize how quickly moments disappear. If you don’t capture them, they slowly fade. That’s one of the reasons I read so much and why I believe in documenting life through writing and photography.

I don’t want to feel pressured or controlled by an algorithm, which is why I chose to write here instead of on a monetized platform that’s driven by likes, comments, and engagement.

I have years’ worth of thoughts scattered throughout my notes, along with photographs, stories, lessons, and ideas that have never been shared. I’ll do my best to write about the past while documenting the present and whatever the future has in store.

Maybe that’s enough.

Or maybe it isn’t.

Either way, these stories deserve to exist somewhere.

So, here we are.

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:52:47 -0500

Nani would have been 9 last week. My first ever pup. All dogs go to heaven. 🐶 ❤️

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 19:03:08 -0500

The kind of peace that looks like strength.

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 11:25:41 -0500

A storm between me and everything. Still, I move forward.

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 02:01:10 -0500

I wish I could be one with the sun and water or maybe I already am.

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:48:25 -0500

Wrote this on the cliff in La Jolla

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 21:36:36 -0500

I forgot to share these from my evening walk the other day.

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 21:32:26 -0500

I think paradise is on earth and I’ve experienced it in many places when immersed in nature. There’s beauty all around us.

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 18:11:53 -0500

Another risky move to get these shots. 😅

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 14:21:39 -0500

Best of grayscale this morning.

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 14:17:07 -0500

Never miss the sunrise.

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 02:32:33 -0500

Staring at this picture of Hank at 1:32am. He loves the splash.

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 18:44:11 -0500

Got my jeans dirty bending down and getting these shots but there were definitely worth it.

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 09:03:14 -0500

My favorite sunrise of the week.

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:45:50 -0500

My brain needs to let out steam every morning. Regardless of the weather i need the peace and quiet to calm my mind. Nature is healing. I was surprised the flamingos were still out there.

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 17:46:20 -0500

Chi-tarctica

Me and My Dog

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:48:00 -0500

me and my dog