Dear you,

Yes, you read that right - I’m getting married.

I’m also moving out tomorrow and I just finished packing up a carry-on suitcase with my essentials. As I was choosing what to take and what to leave behind, the fresh start feeling finally hit me. It’s been a while since I felt that despite a lot of changes I’ve experienced recently.

• For one, I saw my first in-person psychologist last week. One of the things that came up was this blog. Amongst many hobbies like reading, photography and exercising, I stopped writing which used to give me a lot of joy. After feeling pretty consumed by work, I started to brainstorm all the possible escapes. What I landed on was honestly just writing especially seeing as I look at numbers virtually all day except for the occasional slide deck.

• Secondly, I mentioned exercising. My friends keep asking me to play futsal again with them but I’m still scarred from my last injury. Instead, I’ve picked up pickleball and played my first padel game last week which I’m a huge fan of. After a year or so of Barry’s classes, I’ve come crawling back to my old gym this week which has been really grounding. It’s also super convenient because it’s right next to my office. I’m playing tennis tomorrow with some friends so besides the gym I’m really hoping to just continue racquet sports.

• I also mentioned reading. My friend prompted me to open goodreads after he shared that he was on track to hit 52 books this year. I had read 2 which is 10 books short of my 2026 goal. I just finished my 3rd book on Audible - Grit by Angela Duckworth. I also uninstalled YouTube Music and I’m back on listening to audiobooks whilst driving and at the gym.

Instagram, Substack and LinkedIn

Question for my readers - do you think I should reactive Instagram temporarily for my wedding weekend? For context, I’ve been deactived for close to 14 months and I have no interest in returning to Instagram. I’m just wondering whether I’ll look back and regret not capturing it for myself via saved highlights and not sharing it with friends and acquaintances. I’m mostly leaning towards staying deactivated but open to perspectives.

Regarding Substack, it’s definitely a platform I’d love to start posting on purely to monetise. Since 2020, I’ve been writing on and off on diferent platforms whether it’s WordPress, Medium and most recently Beehiiv. As much as I love niche socials like Goodreads, Strava and Letterboxd, I honestly don’t love Substack but it seems to be where the writers are flocking to.

In other news, I posted my first LinkedIn update since first signing up to the app in 2015 (pre-Microsoft’s acquisition). It took me 31 days to share my first promotion after 8.5 years of full-time work. I debated it going back and forth in my head but am really happy I shared it because it’s been a joy reading through the comments.

💬 Made you think

In the car ride home, I’m really glad my friend asked me this because it forced me to think and come up with an answer. My mind wandered to just about anything creative. With just over 4 months left in the year, I’m hoping to tap back into my creative hobbies but more importantly reconnect with friends and networks as I embrace married life.

Till next time,

Azam