I genuinely cannot believe that we're half of the month already. I'm still poor, job hunting and depending on BTS for my dopamine.

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Hola Señors y Señoritas y Los Jovenes,

That's the product of a 65-day Duolingo streak. Shout out to me. Unrelated, but finding gender-neutral honorifics is a very hard thing to do. I went down a rabbit hole of Google searches to find one for Spanish.

This week's letter has been in the works for about a week, I struggle with articulating my feelings with things that matter to me so it took a while to pen it all down.

Mariam🍃 on Twitter: "Best thing i’ve seen in a while. https://t.co/jz5MIHZpNI" / Twitter — twitter.com

“Best thing i’ve seen in a while.”

I like this tweet. I like this tweet a lot. In a world that wants everybody to be hard guys and just 'we move' everything, this tweet is a reminder that we should learn to just sit with our feelings and just feel them. And if we're so inclined, be melodramatic about them.

Hot take - I don't believe that overreacting exists. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule but in and of itself, I believe that the concept of overreacting is a false entity imposed on us by the neurotypical society we exist in. The way someone on the spectrum would react would be deemed overreaction but is it truly one? I think we need to examine our beliefs and the way we label emotional outbursts. Some things are not bad, they just are an emotional release when it gets too much.

That was a tangent but yes, I truly think that in that moment - in the heat of emotions, how you react is just the right amount of reaction you needed to exhibit. If you needed it spelt out for you, this excludes abuse.

Back into it, feeling your feelings is a good thing but it's also a useless thing without introspection. Untangling the jumble of emotions in your chest is a good thing, identifying why you feel that way is an even better thing.

My partner calls me an 'emotionally attuned human', usually when I make a point he doesn't want to listen to. I like untangling my feelings a lot, because it's the only thing I have control over (I'm a Nigerian first born daughter living in Nigeria, my whole life is out of control). Talking about what I'm feeling and why I'm feeling that way is a good way to get a handle on everything else.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that if everybody acknowledged and untangled their feelings, we'd have less people walking about with trauma and the streets (dating pool) wouldn't be the cesspool of tears and nonsense that it is. Or everybody should just go to therapy, but human beings? Acknowledge their emotions? Never that. You however, you should do better.

On Life

My plot is still carried by power of friendship (if you missed last week's letter, I talked about how there was something to be said about anime carried by the power of friendship trope) and job hunting is a rubbish concept. Someone said finding a job is a full-time job, and truer words have never been spoken.

I am watching Alchemy of Souls, well, trying to watch Alchemy of Souls. It's a good K-drama - historical, magic, complicated relationships. I'm in the middle of episode 5.

My second episode of Litverse dropped. I talked to Paul Anisiji, the founder of the writing community I belong to, and the CEO of PabPub. One day, I will write about the FWC and how it inspired me to keep writing.

In a world where getting published is a big deal, and something that only happens if you have connections or your eleda is looking out for you, Paul is doing a great thing and I enjoyed talking to him.

49th Litverse: Paul Anisiji, the tech bro bridging the publishing gap. | The49thStreet — the49thstreet.com

From building a community of writers to building a publishing company, Paul Anisiji is a writer, reader and tech entrepreneur braving the odds to make

On Books.

My favorite book I read last week was Love Radio. It's such a cute high school romance. It's grumpyxsunshine but the grumpy one is the girl. It's about a high school DJ that gives advice and a girl who wants nothing to do with love. He says he can make her fall in love in three dates, and she says he can't. And the cover has the girl and her natural hair on it. Sold!

I'm currently reading Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction by Murray Stein. It's a psychology non-fiction book explaining the findings of Carl Jung, an early psychologist. I might pick up a fiction book to go along with it.

On Music

BTS member J-Hope dropped his solo album! I love love every song on it. I particularly like the fact that this album explores the darker side of someone who we used to always view as our sunshine. He's still our sunshine but the sun sets sometimes. Jack in the Box is an album about embracing emotions that we may deem negative because they are a part of us.

Intro — www.youtube.com

Provided to YouTube by 'BIGHIT MUSIC'Intro · j-hopeJack In The Box Released on: 2022-07-15Auto-generated by YouTube.

Lemonade

This week's Lemonade is J-hope's album please. It's a reflection of all the things I feel at this moment and I'm glad Hoseok dropped it when he did.

This letter is unedited and I apologize. I shall do better next week. Manana es lunes, good luck to all of us that have to work.