A lot of things bother me… I mean, it’s only human. But one thing I genuinely can’t stand is being around people who just can’t be themselves.
There’s something about that kind of energy that feels off. It doesn’t just irritate me it drains me. Completely. It’s honestly exhausting being around that. There’s just… something about it.
I’m still figuring out the why. Maybe it’s the tension they carry, or the constant shape-shifting that makes the room feel heavy. Maybe it’s because I value authenticity so deeply, that being around its absence feels like suffocating in silence.
I just wish more people knew how much peace lives in simply being who you are. No edits. No masks. Just you.
(The amount of time I’ve yapped “authenticity here feels illegal)
What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?
Haah! I almost missed today’s prompt, but whew! This one’s got me smiling. I love love. I’m a certified, card-carrying hopeless romantic.
My definition of romance? Comprehension.
Not just flowers and fancy gestures (though yes, please 🌹) but truly getting each other.
Like, “I see you. I get you. I hold space for who you are,” and you doing the same for me.
That’s it. That’s the romance.
It’s conversations.
Not just the deep, soul-baring kind (though I live for those), but the playful, “you won’t believe what happened at work today” ones.
Talking to my man, my man, my man (yes, I’ve said that way too many times 😅) that’s my love language. It’s how I go on adventures without ever leaving the house.
It’s listening. Like, actually listening.
Because have you ever opened your heart to someone, only to realize halfway through they’ve completely zoned out? Whew.
Not just humiliating, diabolical.
A heartbreak without the breakup.
So when my person really listens tuned in, heart on, eyes soft? That’s poetry.
It’s quality time.
Car parked. Takeout in hand. Nowhere to go just good vibes.
It’s snuggles. It’s canoodling. It’s couch cuddles where time disappears.
It’s respect.
(Hey papi, here…respect abounds)
Knowing that beyond and above the love, there’s respect.
On the days when love doesn’t feel like enough, we’ll fill the gap with the respect we’ve built around each other.
It’s space.
Space to talk, to vent, to become the full-blown podcast that I am unfiltered, unscripted, and slightly dramatic. 😂
To me, romance is showing up as your whole self and letting me do the same.
Like yes, I’m your safe space. And you? You’re my effing best friend, hun. 💛
Also… I already have the design of my gown, by the way. 😌
Cheers!
What are you most worried about for the future?
Currently, I’m mostly worried about what my country Kenya will look like in the near future.
Back story, I was on a call in the morning with somebody I haven’t spoken to for almost 7 months now.
It felt awkward at first. Anyway midway through the call, he tells me “you sound different.” I ask, “how different?” he says “weirdly calm”
That wasn’t the first time he was saying that, he has always said that about me. That I tend to be weirdly calm.
But he insisted that this one was different.
Then eventually while texting he told me I sounded like ChatGPT 🤣. This one got me. “Asin robotic?” I asked. He said, “You articulate your thoughts more carefully now” okay I promised myself to stop probbing further because I didn’t get it.
I’ve also been told before that communication with me almost always feels like a communication class. I thought this was a bit harsh. I won’t lie, this one hurt me.
So for the better part of this year, I’ve literally been working on myself. Asin the real stuff. Rectifying my bad bits and stuff, including my communication skills.
I wouldn’t want to go around sounding like I was taking people through a communications class…you know.
I have stayed in solitude for what feels like ages. The minute I started interacting with people, I get such remarks about my communication. Well others have said that now, I sound too guarded. I don’t know.
I know I digressed, but all that is to say..I am extremely passionate about communication.
I live in a typical African village, and watching it evolve over the years has been nothing short of epic.
I still remember when the entire village shared a single phone. If someone received a call, word would travel fast, literally. Someone would run across homesteads to deliver the message: “Your call is waiting.”
But what I miss most is not the technology or lack of it. It is the intentionality in our interactions. Most evenings, our parents would stroll to the neighbors’ compound, sit under a tree, and catch up on the latest village gossip. We kids? We’d gather and dive into games like “kati”, hide and seek, and “kalongo” until the moon told us it was time to go home.
Those were the kind of moments that filled our hearts, unfiltered and real.
Then came the shift.
First, more phones. Then, one in every home. Then Facebook. Twitter (now X). WhatsApp. Instagram. And just like that, our quiet little world turned into a global village.
Suddenly, life outside became quieter. Not because people were not around, but because they were inside, eyes glued to glowing screens. Connection became easier, yes, but not always deeper.
Sometimes, I say… half-joking but wholly honest, that I would have thrived in a world without the internet. A world where messages were passed with smoke signals, drumbeats, or a neighbor’s knock at the door.
Of course, I appreciate the digital age and all it offers. But part of me still longs for the soul of a slower life, where presence was not a status, it was a way of being.
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What are you good at?
A lot of things really, but majorly at being myself.
Shadow to my light. 