Hello, hey, hi!
I just came around to tell you that there are plenty of festivals on Clumsy Linguist! No need to sit at home! Although I do admit, lounging by the pool in your fabulous garden 24/7 is very tempting.
Time to socialise and hear some news!
Saturday Sunshine
I have suffered from anxiety all my life. Only recently have I started to notice a change.
I’m on my year abroad, in a new environment, meeting new people, trying to speak a language that makes me look like an idiot 80% of the time. And my anxiety levels are the lowest they have ever been. Strange, right?
I don’t mind going to the kitchen when I know people are there. I don’t mind going to parties, events or chatting with people I’ve never met. I don’t prepare my sentences in advance. I just jump into the situation and… roll with it.
This has been life-changing.
I’m much less stressed, the prospect of socialising thrills me instead of causing me anxiety and I find it easier to talk to people. My confidence is doing good, even when I stutter out sentences that don’t make any sense.
Weird.
How did this happen? I keep thinking.
Well, I suppose the answer is probably easier than my over-thinking brain would expect it to be. There are a few factors at play.
1) I changed my close circle of friends. When you’re close with someone, you automatically attract the energy they give off. When this energy is mostly full of negativity and anxiety, it will do you no good. After accepting positive and excited people into my close circle and cutting some of the worse influences out, I found myself feeling better every day.
2) Quarantine helped me ground myself and truly explore who I was and where I wanted to go. It was a time of deep reflection, lots of free time and hours of journaling. Contrary to my expectations, spending so much time shut in one flat actually helped me to feel at ease when I’m in the middle of social interactions now. I haven’t figured out how exactly this came to be, but I’m certainly grateful for it.
3) I’ve battled anxiety my whole life. When it was threatening to take over, I said, “Not today.” I went to events I didn’t want to go to. I went on dates that caused me to feel anxious a week before they even took place. Every time, I refused to let it take hold. And it seems to me like this exposure therapy I did on myself finally came to fruition.
Remember - suffering from anxiety is horrible. It’s tough. But you can beat it. Don’t let it get in the way of living your life the way you want to.
You’ve got this.
Language Lessons
Quizlet is probably my favourite language tool of all time. It’s a website as well as a phone app. You can create sets for whatever vocabulary you wish, and then you play games with the terms and their translated versions.
I personally almost exclusively use the Write feature, which is a simple way to learn new vocabulary through drilling alone. Create sets that have about 20-30 words. Repeat regularly.
I have found this to be the easiest and fastest way to remember your vocabulary.
Reading Recommendations
Image found on Goodreads
Girls Burn Brighter. Wow. What a book that was.
I spent one whole day being immersed in this story. It’s a book about two Indian girls and how they strive to unite their paths after being separated. The book focuses on the suffering of women in India caused by long-overdue traditions such as asking for dowry. Shobha Rao writes about human trafficking, sexual violence and the horrors women must go through daily in order to survive.
A powerful, raw and very violent book. Some of the scenes will haunt me for a very long time. More so because these things happen to thousands of women every day.
An important read that will truly make you see how much we still need feminism.
Writing Whispers
I’ve got some new articles for you! I will deeply appreciate each read.
On relationships
5 Mistakes My Exes Made That Slowly Broke Our Relationships
Boredom Might Be the Start of Your Happily Ever After
On feminism
Five Things I Want My Daughter to Know
On education
The Most Harmful Thing School Has Taught Me
There are many more articles to come soon enough!
Clumsy Confessions
As I went to greet my friend, I stumbled on the stairs and almost fell over while saying: “Hiya-eeeee!” (The eeeee came with the fall.)
I also stumbled on the same stairs a few days later as I was calling with someone. The stairs don’t like me. They can sense a stumbling potential and don’t hesitate to intervene.
When I moved in, the light in the kitchen wasn’t working. They fixed it. Now the hallway light isn’t working either. This wouldn’t be so strange on its own. The bigger story, though, is that nothing worked and everything broke while I was living in Glasgow - now that I’m gone, everything’s just fine. It’s not just stairs that don’t like me. Technology has a particular hatred towards my little clumsy self. It knows I will break it, no matter how hard it tries to survive. We enjoy making each other’s lives difficult. It’s a complex love story.
I almost knocked over like five things full of water. Just almost, though. Apart from giving me a slight shock, nothing drastic happened.
These were overall quite good two weeks. No major clumsy accidents. I just had to ask my flatmate to fix like three things for me because I’m useless.
Uhm.
If you managed to get this far, thank you so much for being a subscriber. It means so much!
I will see you again in two weeks!
Don’t hesitate to share this newsletter:
*I encouragingly smile at you and your pyjama outfit.* What are you waiting for? When you’re ready, it’s time to go out and mingle! Or at least… *I scratch my head.* That’s what I think they say. Something along those lines.
Have a wonderful day!