Grounded

When I was a kid, my mom and I used to write things down on paper and burn them. It wasn't therapy — it was just something we did for fun. Kind of odd looking back at it now, but years later I realized that it was almost therapeutic. Turns out there are well-documented studies on the psychological benefits of writing down your thoughts and symbolically destroying them.

That memory stuck with me. My idea was simple: can I bring that experience to a phone? And more importantly — can I make the burn animation realistic enough that someone actually feels like the thought is being burned away?

The whole thing lives or dies on the burn. If it looks fake, the illusion breaks and it's just another notes app with a gimmick. So I went deep on the animation — using Skia to render realistic fire, ash particles, and paper curl effects that respond to the content on screen.

The goal was immersion. If someone writes down a heavy thought and watches it catch fire, curl at the edges, and dissolve into nothing — they should feel something. That's the whole point.

I'm super proud of how the animation came out. It's the kind of project where the technical challenge and the emotional purpose are the same thing — making something feel real enough to work. The burn had to be convincing, or the whole concept falls apart.

Grounded was also a chance to showcase what screen transitions can do — and how far you can push beautiful, polished apps with regular JavaScript. I love React Native, and if I can contribute to the ecosystem by helping people build gorgeous looking apps, then I'm happy.

Grounded started as a childhood memory and turned into something I genuinely think can help people.