When the universe yells at you

Sometimes, the universe is really fucking* loud.

I don’t know how many hours I spent trying to describe, in one word and a catchphrase, a tanjennts that I would be excited about. I picked up and threw away “zine.” And it’s certainly not a magazine, newspaper, or collection of unhinged thoughts. Neither did I want to copy descriptions from other newsletter inspirations.

The above screenshots show my digital brain dump from July 2025 and more thoughts from my September 2025 notebook brainstorm. Not pictured are the unfiltered letters I’ve been sending to paid subscribers about this topic. Clearly, I struggle with making decisions.

I eventually landed on “a digest for reflection & inspiration”…at least for now. This is when the universe yelled at me. From the very first newsletter send—back when it was a handful of paragraphs and links about coffee marketing—I had created a subdomain for the newsletter to live. I wanted people to be able to browse past articles, but separately from my blog. If you’ve only been seeing the emails, it’s possible you might not know about the site.

The URL is digest.jennchen.com.

IT’S IN THE NAME.

You can tell how mad I was because I rarely do one-sentence paragraphs, despite their annoying popularity on LinkedIn and clickbait articles. I don’t know how much louder the universe could get. It was probably angry at me and punished me with two sleepless nights of one mutant tropical mosquito that survived five murder attempts (my partner and Zoey slept blissfully).

Now, I’m not saying that I entirely believe in signs from the universe. But I think what people mean—perhaps unconsciously—is that you’re open to receiving or experiencing new thoughts/moments/ideas. Is it serendipity, or is it that a decade ago, my newsletter software, Revue (RIP), suggested it as a subdomain option, and that I’m terrible at naming things? Why not both? I also believe that as you experience more life, your past interests and decisions become useful in the present. I could’ve saved myself a heck of a lot of time had I taken a zoomed-out view of this situation.

I’d love to know—when was the last time the universe yelled at you?

*I do warn new readers on my about page about this—I appreciate a well-placed f-word when the situation warrants it. IRL, I swear all the time. In professional spaces, I tone it down. This is my creative space; if you are offended by its one-time use here, this probably isn't the newsletter for you.