Hello... is this thing on?
A little bit about this newsletter
I’m so glad (and a bit nervous - eeeek!) that you’re here. Since the 3rd grade, when I wrote a poem called “Smartie on the Sunny Beach”, I’ve known in my bones that I am a writer. That knowing, itself, has never waxed and waned, but the writing has gone through peaks and valleys, long stretches of activity followed by long dormant phases.
In high school, I used to walk around with a tiny notebook tucked into the pockets of my baggy jeans so I could note down observations and write down snippets of good lines before I forgot them. My hands were constantly covered with the blue ink of my pen. I wrote poetry all the time, awful, angsty poetry that described pain I had never experience, but I wrote.
In Uni, I did a very “child of immigrants” thing, and studied engineering. I told myself I would write every day after work. Famous last words.
Life happened. I got married, got busy at work, had kids. A funny thing about kids though - they don’t sleep. At least, mine didn’t. And so parenting in this crazy world took a big bite out of me, out of my energy, my focus, my ability to see snippets of good lines everywhere I looked. Perfectionist though I was, I tried to write through it at first. You’ll see some of that writing in my archive - words and thoughts and feelings about motherhood, about watching little humans grow and feel their feelings and challenge you in all the ways. Eventually though, I was spent. I would sit down to write but I had nothing left to say. So I gave myself a much needed break, and made myself a promise: when my youngest hit 10, I’d write again.
Prone to Hyperbole is the fulfilment of that promise. It’s my commitment to slow down, write more, and live in conscious connection with my values. I chose this name because I have always had a lot of big feelings. If I eat a good sandwich it’s THE BEST I’ve ever had (until I have another best sandwich a week later). For years, I’ve been ashamed of those big feelings and tried to “take it down a notch”. But perhaps they are part of what make me the writer I am, the person I am? With this newsletter, I’m going to explore those feelings, I’m going to lift them up to the light and turn them every which way to see what I find.
I’ll be writing about anything and everything: motherhood, cycling, friendship, anxiety, the joys and challenges of being a visibly Muslim woman in a sometimes-unfriendly world. I write mostly non-fiction prose but I’ve got a story or seven brewing in my head at any given time, and I might experiment with my stories here. I used to write a lot of poetry - we’ll see if there’s any water left in that well, too. Sometimes, I may just post hilarious memes I love.
Mostly, I just want to flex a muscle that’s atrophied, share my words, and reconnect with a community. I’m so grateful you’ve stumbled upon this page, and I’d be even more grateful if you shared this with friends and family, and if you considered subscribing.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about that poem in 3rd grade, it went like this:
Smartie on the Sunny Beach
Hot! Hot! I’m turning red!
If I don’t go, I’ll soon be dead!
My body’s hot and so’s my head!
Help! Help! Dying - dead.
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