Why do I even have a newsletter?

Last Wednesday when I pressed publish on my third newsletter, I closed my laptop and went to take a shower.

Usually, I’d bring my phone in, scroll Instagram and leave without any significant thoughts whatsoever. But ever since I decided to start sending weekly newsletters to you guys, I think about new things to talk to you about.

With water seeping around my ears, hair half dry half wet, and that whooshing sound of the water that makes you want to take life seriously, I began thinking about topics I want to share in my next few newsletters. But none of those topics will ever make sense until you don’t know me, what I do, and why in the world I even started a newsletter in the first place.

For the handful of people over the past few weeks that asked me why I started a newsletter, I gave a vague answer that I like writing.

And that’s true.

But that’s not all. That’s not even a single percent of it!

I grew up in a catholic school where English was prioritized more than anything else. I was born in a household where speaking in English was highly appreciated as well. I even had a friend circle that thought speaking fluent English means you have achieved some kind of nirvana or that you’re highly intelligent.

You see I’d credit most of my speaking skills to my school. They were a bunch of English lovers - teachers, and students alike. Everybody loved those English classes, learning US accents, pronouncing words like Urdu as “Erdu”, and having a collection of poems that they’d show their teachers. The better English you could speak, the better your status in the class.

Students competing over impressing teachers with better English words, I’m all for that!

During this time, I learned English too. I learned a few words from raps, a few from movies like Jurassic Park and Resident Evil, and a few from the games I played on the laptop I used to steal from my dad’s closet.

I got good. So good that I started posting on Facebook.

Well, I tried. The truth is that I mostly wrote broken sentences which I thought made me look cool. It didn’t!

Gnarly, I know!

But as the years went by, I started getting better. Remember, I’m strictly talking about sentence formation so far.

However, even though speaking basic English and forming vague sentences was something I learned at a very young age, I couldn’t learn communication. Not in my school, not in my home, not in my friend groups, and not even in my mother tongue.

Now I know what you might be thinking, isn’t that a problem most of us face?

Correct, we do!

We take our time to learn how to speak and how to communicate.

And if you think speaking or forming sentences is the same as communicating, here’s a small language class for you:

While talking and posting statuses on Facebook was something I was good at, I could never learn proper communication, not until I decided I want to start something on my own without telling anybody.

This is why I started a YouTube channel which I abandoned, a podcast, which I abandoned, and a blog which I abandoned. None of these things were ever started with the intention of building a sustainable career; they were just a part of this learning journey where I feel comfortable ‘communicating’ with other people.

So after a good amount of time and a handful of failed attempts later, I decided to start something of my own on the side, something authentic, and something that I can truly call mine. And what better way than a weekly newsletter to talk to you and tell you how good I’ve become at communicating things?

• This newsletter helps me to keep track of my personal journey and lets you on as well.

• It gives me a way of talking to you almost every week.

• It allows me to put out stories from time to time.

And with that, the shower knob closes and my topic for this week is ready.

See ya! 🙂

Also, really appreciate the love on the previous newsletters. Check out my previous newsletters also.