Two years ago, Your Highness Nostalgia loved to barge into my life and painfully pinched me.
I was nostalgic for my uni and believed that intellectually I had been in my best shape during those five blissful – for me – years.
The truth is, what I missed wasn’t my uni itself but rather my lifestyle: back then, I had been reading an awful lot of books and writing. I had been also teaching – and also a lot! – but in my twenty-something-year-old mind it hadn’t been my main preoccupation. And that’s what I was missing two years ago.
Because when my adult life started – and it started quite abruptly when I moved to Paris and had nothing: no money, no work, no place to go – I decided that books and writing were rather a privilege. And that I couldn’t allow myself to spend time reading and writing.
Everything changed last year. It was an awful year, 2022. All that spring, I was crying. Thousands and thousands of dementors were floating above my head. And to cast Expecto Patronum, I took to writing in English, my second language. One of the best decisions ever.
Not only did I keep my bleeding mind occupied but I also was getting back my true self that had been hiding for those long ten years of my adult life.
“If you want to write decent texts in English, you HAVE to read a lot,” I was telling myself. Reading a lot! Reading a lot! I finally could give myself a carte blanche to read a lot. And of course, of course, I couldn’t write interesting posts without some research behind it. And oh gosh, I did love to do research!
It is November 2023.
8:50
I’m sitting in my kitchen and writing a list of books I need to read to start writing drafts for my new story.
I feel extremely happy. Fulfilled. Ignited. I am finally myself: a girl with books that loves to write.
I don’t teach less, no. I’m still struggling to build my online business. From time to time, I feel insecure. My heart is still bleeding, for the war is not over.
But I finally know who I am. And see in what direction I want to move.
More wonderful treats, you really are spoiling us this week 🖤