Living Late(ly) has been:
Fulfilling
Expansive
An adjustment!
How have you been lately?
A few weeks ago, I finished a weekly mini-memoir filling you in on the last six months (November 2023 to May 2024) of dating as an asexual, and learning how to love myself more deeply. Well, now it’s the beginning of October and so much has happened since then!
I got into my first car accident and totaled my car!
My family and I got COVID for the first time!
We moved into our first home!
My boyfriend met my family!
I met my boyfriend’s family!
I got a food service job!
And I’ve written and learned a lot along the way! Especially in the last month or two.
With that, I wanted to use this time to share my current thoughts and lay out some intentions for what’s to come here on Living Late(ly) (and beyond!).
What to expect
I’ve been going inward a lot lately to better understand what values I live by, and to decide how I’m intentionally showing up for myself online and in life. With that, I’ve decided to stay in integrity with myself and only post when I feel called to do so.
I spoke with some of the community about this in a Chat here on Substack because I have A LOT to share with you, but didn’t wanna spam your inbox.
Y’all are so great. You gave me permission to just organically write to you, try it out, and see how it goes first before asking how you feel with the volume I put out.
So that’s exactly what I’ll do! :)
A sneek peek of what I have drafted:
I raced back to edit this before work to share some of the draft topics I’ll be covering!
A DEEP dive into intentionally designing a life (insights, research, and reflections).
How to process a day full of feelings and emotions.
Thoughts and reflections on returning to the food service industry, with some twists!
A different look at inner child work.
How we’re all mirrors for each other, and how that can better you when you have the awareness.
Processing money mindsets out in the wild.
A discussion about the books we own after visiting a bookstore for the first time in yeeeeeears.
Discussion around how we can use our Human Design to show up better for ourselves.
And so much more!
I’ll go deeper in future posts about more developments, but just know I’m excited to be in a place where I can share anecdotes that lead more intentionally to life lessons and personal development in real time. How fun!
I’ve been getting nudges quite a bit lately that maybe I can show up again as a mentor or coach. Ever since mom died, it didn’t feel right to coach or mentor on anything because I felt like I was back at square one. But I feel way more confident that I have plenty to share now. We’ll see how that all unfolds; it’ll be a nice addition to everything because it can be more structured while I continue to let my writing come to me naturally.
I’m also intuitively writing a book at my own pace about how I grew and changed despite and because of my mom. It’ll be a dedication to her, a big theme in it being that she didn’t die in vain. It feels like she left so little of herself behind in ways that can be truly held, cherished, and mourned over for me. But all the ways she taught me how NOT to be means something.
I wouldn’t have become the person I was today if my mom wasn’t the way she was. I think that counts for something.
I see now why writing memoirs about moments in life that were hard to reflect on can be tumultuous for writers… I think it caused my first grief breakdown at work!
But more on ALL of that later.
Upcoming topics
Let me bullet point for you what topics I’m eager to talk to you about at the moment:
Grief/loss of a parent/loved one
Complicated mother-daughter relationships
Self-improvement (sometimes in real time) when building a life you want to cherish
Food/ideas/hacks/products/media/books/etc. I’m excited to share with you(!!)
Life stories and lessons learned from my lens
Deconstructing Christianity
Growing up sheltered and overcoming obstacles from that (this is a maybe topic, but an identity I resonated with when I heard about it)
I heard brief ramblings about a “trend” going around about the audience you’re looking to pull into your orbit, and made a graphic of my own I shared in Notes:
I hope you feel at home here; the human experience isn’t a linear one! All of these “types” of people have been me at many points of my life! I hope the generations coming up get over trying to fit themselves into “____core” TikTok boxes, thinking everything they wear and do needs to fit into an ✨aesthetic✨.
We’re all too beautifully complex for that.
Formats you’ll get
The formats of what’s to come will be pretty similar to how I’ve run things in the past:
Personal essays
Poetry
Food/ideas/hacks/products/media/books/etc. I’m excited to share with you. Kinda like a personal and giddy letter to you sharing all the hot goss.
Reflections
Drawings, maybe, supplementing the above
Possibly yappy bonus voice notes.
I’ve been having fun drafting all sorts of post formats! So I hope you feel my excitement through what I share with you soon!
I still need to update my about page and the pinned post, but that will come with time. And most of what I write will be free! Paid subscribers will get the more intimate pieces and maybe more if I develop more down the line!
We’ll see! Continuing to take things day by day, and trusting how everything will turn out. :)
Alright, I’ve chatted enough! This was meant to rip the perfectionism bandaid off for me so I can begin showing up more with my writing so I hope this is well-received!
See you soon, and have a great weekend! :D
Warmly,
Cierra M
I'm all in for the things you're planning, especially any time you want to talk about "Complicated mother-daughter relationships."
Good to see you back. Keep plugging, young lady!