Intro

Whenever I faced an obstacle in life and I didn’t know what to do and felt stressed, anxious, sad or alone, my mother would remind me:

“Everyone has something,” she would say. “You are not alone. You are so strong and I am so proud of you. You will get through this.”

She meant that at any given time, everyone has something difficult going on in their lives. When my life imploded in 2022, I couldn’t go to my mom and I found it extremely hard to share things with even my closest friends who are really like family. I think I feared their pity. I wasn’t convinced they would understand. Some things were so painful to acknowledge myself, it was unfathomable to think about telling others. But I found that once I decided I was ready, and began talking about things, they in turn confided more deeply in me. They opened up about the issues they were facing and what was upsetting in their lives. As she had been about so many other things, my mother was right about this, too. Everyone has something.

Writing has always been my personal form of catharsis. What I struggle to articulate verbally I have no issue putting in writing. When things began to unravel, I couldn’t bring myself to string a sentence together. I was overwhelmed with devastation, sadness, uncertainty. I asked my therapist what my problem was, why I couldn’t write, which had always helped me sort through complicated feelings and situations in the past. He said to be patient, and there will eventually come a time when I’d be able to write again.

That time is now. Welcome to Letters.

P