The Start of Something New

Welcome, Reader! 🤍

Living a full life is a life full of trying new things. I've been on this blogging journey for a little over a year now and I can't even begin to tell you how much I've learned in that time. I've learned new things about myself, about literature, about activism, and about empathy. And the biggest thing that I've learned is that I truly believe that literature has the power to change the world.

As I have continued along this journey, though, I've started to feel like I'm missing something. It's taken me a long time to realize it because I truly feel like what I've been doing with promoting authors from a wide range of background does make a difference. I truly believe that I'm doing as best as I can to really make a mark on the world and that is all I can ever ask of myself, so I've been constantly think to myself, "what could be missing?"

In the past month I've finally, finally figured out what that missing piece is. It's you. It's connection and it's sharing about books more intimately with you. I've never been hiding from you, in fact, I've always tried to be as open as possible and really encourage people to talk to me about books (ps. you are always free to drop in my emails or DMs!). But I've never had a direct line of connection to you. I've never had a space that really opened up those doors to chat and share with you.

Now I'm sure you can already guess that this is the reason I've started this newsletter! So needless to say I am absolutely overjoyed in just how many people signed up for this newsletter already. I feel your support and I've never been more grateful. I'm so excited to get personal with you so that we can grow together. I'm not sure what this newsletter will turn into in the long run but I'm filled with happiness knowing that you're by my side.

Literary Thoughts

As you may have guessed, I feel very strongly about the importance of diverse literature and the deep impacts that books can have on our culture. Recently I've been thinking about how much stronger that impact is when we're focused not only on consuming other people's stories, but when we're also focused on personal growth. When we're aware of the lessons that we're learning through literature.

I think that I've started to learn so much more from books as I've continued to read more and more diverse books and it's majorly because I really internalized just how much I can learn from fiction. My empathy toward people who used to seem so different from me has grown immensely. I don't take it for granted and I think about it constantly. Being aware of how much I'm growing has helped me grow even more and it's helped me appreciate literature even more than I did before.

All this is to say that I think that we can grow immensely from reading, but I also think that it's important that we're also intentional about personal growth. I think that growth from literature happens whether we are aware of it or not, but I also think that we can grow so much more when we focus on personal growth as well. Checking in with ourselves to make sure that what we consume is helping us grow in the right direction.

Final Note

I hope it isn't terribly obvious in execution but I've never had a newsletter before! I believe if you hit reply your email should come directly to me. Please always feel welcome to reply to these emails, I'd love to see your input. If you'd like to share with me what you're reading, what you'd like to see in this newsletter, what you're excited about, or anything really, please reply! I can't wait to start this journey with you.

Currently Reading: The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and Of Myths and Men by Catherine Dellosa

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