It’s completely normal to question yourself. To wonder how others see you.
“Am I good enough?”
“What’s my motivation?”
“Is this becoming too much?”
You’re not alone in those thoughts, we’ve all wrestled with them. Impostor syndrome is our brain’s way of keeping us humble.
There’s a butchered version of Descartes ("I think therefore I am)
“You write, therefore you belong.”
Theres no secret handshake. No grammar police waiting to pounce. You show up and share something you wrote. That’s enough to get you in the door.
Your English doesn’t need to be perfect. None of us are. We’re all still learning and figuring things out, there's no shame in having a thesaurus open in another tab and running a grammar and spelling check. The fact that you’re doing all of this in a second language and still getting your point across beautifully? That’s more than impressive.
You have a wroting style, a signature. I could read something and know it was yours with no authors name at the top. There aren't many who can claim to have that!
I think often think how lucky I am to have been born where I was, with English as my native language. Something I take completely for granted is a mountain others have to climb before they even start.
You asked, “Why am I even trying?
Because it’s a challenge. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be interesting.
If you already knew everything, there’d be nothing left to discover. We write to learn, to grow, to connect. If you reach perfection then you can stop. Then there's nothing left to learn. Until then, keep going.
If your place is truly in the kitchen, then write in the kitchen! Scribble between sips of tea, or while something’s bubbling on the hob. Write with flour on your fingers if you have to. Just don’t stop writing.
You don’t need to be perfect to fit in here. You don’t need to wear a disguise or play a part. You just need to be Sara.
True how we fluctuate between emotions and circumstances. Negative and positive. Content and complaining. Surety and doubt. Even doubtful about our own existence. One day you're all motivated to conquer the world the next you can't get out of your blankie. For a moment i thought i'm done i can't go on let's put it end to all o' this.
I was just on the verge of leaving but venting here changed my perspective and now i thrive to learn more instead of curling up and giving up🔥
Maybe because i threw up all the poison gurgling in my stomach instead of digesting it.
Wow Rene Descartes sounds like an interesting hooman. I'm gonna look into it more. 😲
I write, therefore i belong 🙊
How strange we have tons of languages but only english is the master of em all. There are some things which can not be conveyed through english but only in that other particular language. like it needs a lot of stirring potions to create a drinkable potion. Or creating a dish mixing all eastern western ingredients together. Et voila! Weird Wednesday is served 🎃
And you're right it's challenging but worth trying. Even fingers sticking with flour or while sizzling on the hob i won't stop..... For now i mean 👀
😭 You think i'm doing brilliant is like i'm given a world championship trophy. I will try my best to learn and grow and connect and do better than just hiss doubts in my own ear. Deeep breath..
Just be yourself Sara!
Thank you Sir Mentor 🫡 you're truly a mentor worth saluting.
The valleys and mountains of the mind, one day we're on top of the world, the next at the bottom of the valley crossing the river wondering how we will ever get up the other side. But we always manage , one foot in front of the other.
If you feel like you're done, embrace it, you might feel differently tomorrow. Don't burn any bridges until you know for sure that you're done, and even then, there's no harm in just taking a break.
What you said about throwing up the poison instead of digesting it, that's a great analogy right there. But then you top it when you get onto language.
What a perfect paragraph, how you say that English is like the universal language but there are certain things that can't be said in English, then you make it visual and end with a phrase that can't be properly expressed in English.
You deserve your trophy 🏆 tell your doubts that you're thankful that they try to keep you grounded, but that they can bugger off!
Yes yes exactly thiss... It's so uncertain when are we going to feel at the top of the mountain and then down again, thinking just how i was ever on top there. But yes one foot in front of the other trailing back our old footsteps to find the way back at top again but with a new fresh perspective this time..
It happened i used to burn all the bridges when i feel done but then i regret doing it later and had to start from point A. 😑 Lesson learned!
Oh by the way i measured my wingspan and my height 3 times just to be sure i'm not mistaken and everytime the result was... "Huhhhhh are you kidding me no waaaay how could this be possible" My dream came true my wingspan is longer than my height 😭 i think at least 3 to 3.5 inches long. i'm an outlier 🤦
Now i want to measure everyone's wingspan in the house to know i'm not alone 🥲
I'm feeling a bit like I'm heading into the valley at the moment. I've got "Can't be arseditus" I sat last night trying to summon the enthusiasm to do something creative and it just wouldn't come. So I just chilled out instead. Not feeling much more creative now so I'm going to go for a walk with my son to see if I can recharge the batteries!
What are you saying? Many here are drowning under such boring serious stuff, and look forward to the life jacket called 'Weird Wednesday'. Ek din to milta hai Sara hasne ke liye, ussse aap hame mohtaj karoge kya?
If your place is in the kitchen, each week share photos with recipe in any language that you are conversant with. We can use Google Lens to translate that and read. Or share audio story.
I was in tears after reading all the comments here. My God i'm over the moon. Thank you sooooooooooooo much Sir for giving me this much importance. I built connections without even knowing it.
Yikes that would be even more embarrassing recording my own voice telling recipes 😶🌫️
If language is about grammatical standards maybe yes give up. But if it’s about conveying meaning and making connections then I think you’re on to something special. You have your own way that says more than people who have written in English all their days. I appreciate it. But maybe you love the kitchen and cleaning more?
Huhhhhh are you mocking my kitchen non-loveliness. Of course i hate the kitchen with every pore of my skin 😫. Ahem i mean i love reading and writing better than kitchen and cleaning. Kitchen makes me achoo.
Thanks for liking and appreciating my lack of very special english skills 🤣
Poor me thinking i'm being judged by english people. And here i'm being praised by the great English Uncle York instead wooooow 🙀
Oh do you mean my back shed English which is specially developed for talking myself out of doing ill-fated things in the world? It seems we have a very real case of the blind leading the blind. Probably blinded by all the chikoo throwing!
Thank you so much Virg. And sorry for the late reply... Life happened. And yes all of your support is giving me quite a boost so i'll come back to writing after all writing gives me liberation no hobby or activity ever had. Thank you for your support Virg. 🥹
Aw my dear Sara! I understand the self-doubt. It's so, so hard sometimes... and it seems like right now, there's a lot of collective energies that are bringing us to face a whole shit-ton of difficult emotions within ourselves.
I do hope that this is just an expression of the emotions you are experiencing for the sake of acknowledging and experiencing them to let them go... and not that you are actually considering not writing anymore!!
From the comments, I can see that there are many others who would miss you and delightful stories.
BTW- I think it's amazing how you are able to express yourself in English, as it's not your first language. That is not anything to scoff at. I am bilingual myself, and find it hard to express myself in Portuguese, even though I've been speaking, reading, and writing it ever since I was a child. But I am more comfortable expressing myself in English, as I've spent more time living in the US. And I definitely hold myself back from doing any real sharing of anything in Portuguese. I would not feel confident enough to undertake writing a newsletter and expressing myself in it! What you are doing is no small feat and I think you are doing amazing.
Self doubt is really a damn demon whispering criticism in our ear and you can't shoo it away with a flick.
And it will strick again and again.
It's really not easy to deal with it in my case it's very infuriating but everytime i drown i come out more and more stronger.
Though i was considering something of that sort but then all of your support changed my mind.
For that i'm really grateful to you all.
You're right being bilingual has it's own perks and cons and If i were writing from teenage i think i might've built more confidence by now but becoz i just started writing recently so i'm wobbly and my feet stagger from time to time. It'll take time for me to stand firmly on this ground and be confident with my words, with my voice (not actual voice)
Thank you my dear Natalie 💛🥲
I'm feeling much better now except for this achoo and toothache 🤧
Yayy! I’m happy to hear that 💙 I would miss your Weird Wednesdays if they went away! 🤓
And seriously. Learning different languages is not easy, and for you to express as you do… girl, you are doing more than fine! (What is your native tongue by the way? I feel like you probably mentioned it in a comment to me before, but I don’t recall. Just curious 😁)
Sara, it is hard to speak over self-criticism when it insists we are not meant to be heard. That kind of doubt carries a weight that can feel overwhelming, but it rarely tells the whole truth. Often, it says more about the emotional burdens we carry than anything we have done wrong.
What you have written is not attention-seeking. And if some part of you is seeking attention, is that wrong? Wanting to be seen, heard, understood. That is being human. Not wrong.
To be vulnerable takes courage, Sara. If you are feeling vulnerable right now, then also know that you are being courageous. And yes, question, question everything. But let those questions ground you, not send you away.
You're right Dom... I think i criticize myself more than i should. And when i'm at it it's as if i'm drowning deeper and deeper, no other voice reaching me only the pressurizing sound of water bubbling in my ears blocking my hearing. And the emotional burden's tentacles pulling me even more deeper.
Writing it down was the most effective therapy i discovered.
I won't deny it. It's true deep down i also wanted to be seen or heard and understood. It's a human nature isn't it.
I was only sailing my boat just for fun never took my posting seriously but when i looked in the sea, a mirror image of mine looking back at me and i touched the surface but the sea pulled me in and i drowned deep in the sea of what n why, i was lost. But you all pulled me out of it telling me i don't need to worry about 'what and why' and gave me the encouragement to embrace 'so what if'
I should just row my boat continuously, somewhere along the way i might find a seashore.
After pausing for a day my mind now more clearer than before.
I know your ways Lee. I absolutely know. Your japanese kaomoji was enough to give me a boost-full support no one can give ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ. I can't tell you in words how much your support means to me... (っ.❛ ᴗ ❛.)っ
Believe me Sir Deviant (you won't mind being called deviant. ahem right) i'm astonished from all the response i get over this raw unfiltered throw up of words. Really wow. You people are the best strangers i ever met. I mean no friendship no companionship just readership. Your encouragement moved me to tears. I never learned english aside from what was taught in schools. No extra language courses or anything. I always felt like i'm not good enough. There are people who speak and write fluently and me on the other hand is just hitting a nail with a spatula. Thank you sooooo much i hope you won't quit posting nightwalk notes either as i'm not quiting becoz of you.
Yes mutual encouragement! Keep writing i'm looking forward to learn more about night sky map through your nightwalk notes and your personal long posts 😊
"What's my Intent?"
😳 wait a second... Kaleidoscope Challenge! I almost forgot. Is there any April left?
I haven't submitted my entry as well only last week remaining. Wanna join forces?? 🦾💪
Absolutely! I'll send you a few ideas later today.
Yayyy done let's do it P.Q 🙌
Hahaha. I think so. She has brilliantly shocked us all.
It’s completely normal to question yourself. To wonder how others see you.
“Am I good enough?”
“What’s my motivation?”
“Is this becoming too much?”
You’re not alone in those thoughts, we’ve all wrestled with them. Impostor syndrome is our brain’s way of keeping us humble.
There’s a butchered version of Descartes ("I think therefore I am)
“You write, therefore you belong.”
Theres no secret handshake. No grammar police waiting to pounce. You show up and share something you wrote. That’s enough to get you in the door.
Your English doesn’t need to be perfect. None of us are. We’re all still learning and figuring things out, there's no shame in having a thesaurus open in another tab and running a grammar and spelling check. The fact that you’re doing all of this in a second language and still getting your point across beautifully? That’s more than impressive.
You have a wroting style, a signature. I could read something and know it was yours with no authors name at the top. There aren't many who can claim to have that!
I think often think how lucky I am to have been born where I was, with English as my native language. Something I take completely for granted is a mountain others have to climb before they even start.
You asked, “Why am I even trying?
Because it’s a challenge. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be interesting.
If you already knew everything, there’d be nothing left to discover. We write to learn, to grow, to connect. If you reach perfection then you can stop. Then there's nothing left to learn. Until then, keep going.
If your place is truly in the kitchen, then write in the kitchen! Scribble between sips of tea, or while something’s bubbling on the hob. Write with flour on your fingers if you have to. Just don’t stop writing.
You don’t need to be perfect to fit in here. You don’t need to wear a disguise or play a part. You just need to be Sara.
And you are doing brilliantly.
True how we fluctuate between emotions and circumstances. Negative and positive. Content and complaining. Surety and doubt. Even doubtful about our own existence. One day you're all motivated to conquer the world the next you can't get out of your blankie. For a moment i thought i'm done i can't go on let's put it end to all o' this.
I was just on the verge of leaving but venting here changed my perspective and now i thrive to learn more instead of curling up and giving up🔥
Maybe because i threw up all the poison gurgling in my stomach instead of digesting it.
Wow Rene Descartes sounds like an interesting hooman. I'm gonna look into it more. 😲
I write, therefore i belong 🙊
How strange we have tons of languages but only english is the master of em all. There are some things which can not be conveyed through english but only in that other particular language. like it needs a lot of stirring potions to create a drinkable potion. Or creating a dish mixing all eastern western ingredients together. Et voila! Weird Wednesday is served 🎃
And you're right it's challenging but worth trying. Even fingers sticking with flour or while sizzling on the hob i won't stop..... For now i mean 👀
😭 You think i'm doing brilliant is like i'm given a world championship trophy. I will try my best to learn and grow and connect and do better than just hiss doubts in my own ear. Deeep breath..
Just be yourself Sara!
Thank you Sir Mentor 🫡 you're truly a mentor worth saluting.
The valleys and mountains of the mind, one day we're on top of the world, the next at the bottom of the valley crossing the river wondering how we will ever get up the other side. But we always manage , one foot in front of the other.
If you feel like you're done, embrace it, you might feel differently tomorrow. Don't burn any bridges until you know for sure that you're done, and even then, there's no harm in just taking a break.
What you said about throwing up the poison instead of digesting it, that's a great analogy right there. But then you top it when you get onto language.
What a perfect paragraph, how you say that English is like the universal language but there are certain things that can't be said in English, then you make it visual and end with a phrase that can't be properly expressed in English.
You deserve your trophy 🏆 tell your doubts that you're thankful that they try to keep you grounded, but that they can bugger off!
I salute you too as a peer 🫡
Yes yes exactly thiss... It's so uncertain when are we going to feel at the top of the mountain and then down again, thinking just how i was ever on top there. But yes one foot in front of the other trailing back our old footsteps to find the way back at top again but with a new fresh perspective this time..
It happened i used to burn all the bridges when i feel done but then i regret doing it later and had to start from point A. 😑 Lesson learned!
Oh by the way i measured my wingspan and my height 3 times just to be sure i'm not mistaken and everytime the result was... "Huhhhhh are you kidding me no waaaay how could this be possible" My dream came true my wingspan is longer than my height 😭 i think at least 3 to 3.5 inches long. i'm an outlier 🤦
Now i want to measure everyone's wingspan in the house to know i'm not alone 🥲
Wow you are officially exceptional!
I'm feeling a bit like I'm heading into the valley at the moment. I've got "Can't be arseditus" I sat last night trying to summon the enthusiasm to do something creative and it just wouldn't come. So I just chilled out instead. Not feeling much more creative now so I'm going to go for a walk with my son to see if I can recharge the batteries!
I hope the batteries are recharged by now... 🥴
🤷♂️ I've been doing plenty of other things, maybe they're recharged now. I'll check later 🤣
Descartes was wrong, perhaps! I am, therefore I think! 😀
I don’t think even Descartes would disagree, both are true in a wonderful paradox of existence.
I like the paradox of existence!
This is the duality, without which the game of life cannot happen!
Only those lucky few who can rise above this tide are truly free!
What are you saying? Many here are drowning under such boring serious stuff, and look forward to the life jacket called 'Weird Wednesday'. Ek din to milta hai Sara hasne ke liye, ussse aap hame mohtaj karoge kya?
If your place is in the kitchen, each week share photos with recipe in any language that you are conversant with. We can use Google Lens to translate that and read. Or share audio story.
Itneeee sareeeee comments 😱🫣
I was in tears after reading all the comments here. My God i'm over the moon. Thank you sooooooooooooo much Sir for giving me this much importance. I built connections without even knowing it.
Yikes that would be even more embarrassing recording my own voice telling recipes 😶🌫️
21 likes and a long string of beautiful comments! Now, I envy you.
Even Shoaib Akhtar’s Rawalpindi Express was put to shame for that long ‘e x p r e s s i o n ‘ train like post of yours 😂
21 😱 how in the world it got 21 likes..
Now i wonder if i should write more gloomy stuff to keep getting attention 😂
I bet i beat Rawalpindi Express this time 🤣 maybe now i should be titled as Legend of Pakistan 😜
Shhhhhh.
Don't leave without a word, you put the F U in fun 🤍🤸♂️
Thank you Krspeace 😭
Wait did i said it out loud that i'll leave without a word 👀
Woops
If language is about grammatical standards maybe yes give up. But if it’s about conveying meaning and making connections then I think you’re on to something special. You have your own way that says more than people who have written in English all their days. I appreciate it. But maybe you love the kitchen and cleaning more?
Huhhhhh are you mocking my kitchen non-loveliness. Of course i hate the kitchen with every pore of my skin 😫. Ahem i mean i love reading and writing better than kitchen and cleaning. Kitchen makes me achoo.
Thanks for liking and appreciating my lack of very special english skills 🤣
Poor me thinking i'm being judged by english people. And here i'm being praised by the great English Uncle York instead wooooow 🙀
Oh do you mean my back shed English which is specially developed for talking myself out of doing ill-fated things in the world? It seems we have a very real case of the blind leading the blind. Probably blinded by all the chikoo throwing!
Thank God it's not a baldy combing a baldy, or picking lice. That would be very..... 🦧
awww maybe you have a chikoo luck. At least only your fate is ill and not your forehead or else we would be reading head as dead.
I love it when you get all abstract. And me with my fish translator overloaded and broken from the last time you gave me compliments.
Amazing work, you are such a wispy whisperer, Sara.
Thaaaaaaank you Obi but not amazing than you. you are such a wisdomy presence. 🥹
Proud of my "student." 😜
😁 thank you my teacher ji
I beg you to keep going. Don't stop writing. Don't listen to that voice. That negative self-talk needs to be answered with more writing. Love, Virg
Thank you so much Virg. And sorry for the late reply... Life happened. And yes all of your support is giving me quite a boost so i'll come back to writing after all writing gives me liberation no hobby or activity ever had. Thank you for your support Virg. 🥹
Aw my dear Sara! I understand the self-doubt. It's so, so hard sometimes... and it seems like right now, there's a lot of collective energies that are bringing us to face a whole shit-ton of difficult emotions within ourselves.
I do hope that this is just an expression of the emotions you are experiencing for the sake of acknowledging and experiencing them to let them go... and not that you are actually considering not writing anymore!!
From the comments, I can see that there are many others who would miss you and delightful stories.
BTW- I think it's amazing how you are able to express yourself in English, as it's not your first language. That is not anything to scoff at. I am bilingual myself, and find it hard to express myself in Portuguese, even though I've been speaking, reading, and writing it ever since I was a child. But I am more comfortable expressing myself in English, as I've spent more time living in the US. And I definitely hold myself back from doing any real sharing of anything in Portuguese. I would not feel confident enough to undertake writing a newsletter and expressing myself in it! What you are doing is no small feat and I think you are doing amazing.
Anyway.
I hope you feel better soon! Sending hugs!
Self doubt is really a damn demon whispering criticism in our ear and you can't shoo it away with a flick.
And it will strick again and again.
It's really not easy to deal with it in my case it's very infuriating but everytime i drown i come out more and more stronger.
Though i was considering something of that sort but then all of your support changed my mind.
For that i'm really grateful to you all.
You're right being bilingual has it's own perks and cons and If i were writing from teenage i think i might've built more confidence by now but becoz i just started writing recently so i'm wobbly and my feet stagger from time to time. It'll take time for me to stand firmly on this ground and be confident with my words, with my voice (not actual voice)
Thank you my dear Natalie 💛🥲
I'm feeling much better now except for this achoo and toothache 🤧
Sending back hugs 🫂🤗
Yayy! I’m happy to hear that 💙 I would miss your Weird Wednesdays if they went away! 🤓
And seriously. Learning different languages is not easy, and for you to express as you do… girl, you are doing more than fine! (What is your native tongue by the way? I feel like you probably mentioned it in a comment to me before, but I don’t recall. Just curious 😁)
No worries forgetting is absolutely nOrmal. Coz i do it all the time 😂(Whisper.. my native language is Urdu اردو. And i suck at it too 🫣)
I hope i'll do better and learn more english from all of you 😁
Ah yes, I do remember now! And lol, you’re too funny…
Yes, this is the best way… learning through interaction and immersion. 💙
Sara, it is hard to speak over self-criticism when it insists we are not meant to be heard. That kind of doubt carries a weight that can feel overwhelming, but it rarely tells the whole truth. Often, it says more about the emotional burdens we carry than anything we have done wrong.
What you have written is not attention-seeking. And if some part of you is seeking attention, is that wrong? Wanting to be seen, heard, understood. That is being human. Not wrong.
To be vulnerable takes courage, Sara. If you are feeling vulnerable right now, then also know that you are being courageous. And yes, question, question everything. But let those questions ground you, not send you away.
You're right Dom... I think i criticize myself more than i should. And when i'm at it it's as if i'm drowning deeper and deeper, no other voice reaching me only the pressurizing sound of water bubbling in my ears blocking my hearing. And the emotional burden's tentacles pulling me even more deeper.
Writing it down was the most effective therapy i discovered.
I won't deny it. It's true deep down i also wanted to be seen or heard and understood. It's a human nature isn't it.
I was only sailing my boat just for fun never took my posting seriously but when i looked in the sea, a mirror image of mine looking back at me and i touched the surface but the sea pulled me in and i drowned deep in the sea of what n why, i was lost. But you all pulled me out of it telling me i don't need to worry about 'what and why' and gave me the encouragement to embrace 'so what if'
I should just row my boat continuously, somewhere along the way i might find a seashore.
After pausing for a day my mind now more clearer than before.
Thank you Dom for understanding me :)
I'm so pleased to hear your thoughts are clearer now Sarah :)
The dilemma of duality! 😛
a very non-reciprocal duality dilemma indeed 😐😵💫
We’re here for you!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
😭 thank you my dearest buddy Lee 🫂
Sorry, I’m not very good at giving words of support, but truly you are not alone.
I know your ways Lee. I absolutely know. Your japanese kaomoji was enough to give me a boost-full support no one can give ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ. I can't tell you in words how much your support means to me... (っ.❛ ᴗ ❛.)っ
Believe me Sir Deviant (you won't mind being called deviant. ahem right) i'm astonished from all the response i get over this raw unfiltered throw up of words. Really wow. You people are the best strangers i ever met. I mean no friendship no companionship just readership. Your encouragement moved me to tears. I never learned english aside from what was taught in schools. No extra language courses or anything. I always felt like i'm not good enough. There are people who speak and write fluently and me on the other hand is just hitting a nail with a spatula. Thank you sooooo much i hope you won't quit posting nightwalk notes either as i'm not quiting becoz of you.
Yes mutual encouragement! Keep writing i'm looking forward to learn more about night sky map through your nightwalk notes and your personal long posts 😊