Why I am here

Everything that has brought me to the point of creating a Substack account

I am bored. Very bored.

I recently moved to a new city, country and continent. I moved away from my home in London, the place where I was born and raised surrounded by loved ones in a stable and successful career. Now I am in Dubai, only a short 7-hour flight away. I still work the same job, but private healthcare is worlds apart from the busy NHS life. Not only that but I have no friends, only my partner and cat. I love them dearly, but I’m a natural extrovert and need social connections to thrive. Long story short, I am bored.

To help with my boredom, I started reading again. I’ve always had a book on the go before, reading maybe one a month. Now I am reading one a week. I am loving it and honestly, I feel inspired.

I have never been a creative person. I stopped English as early as I could and never pursued creative subjects in school, in fact I failed English GCSE and had to resit. So maybe now I have a developed frontal lobe, I can retackle my love of literature in a new light.

I find myself feeling very existential since moving and craving learning something new. I want to delve into the world of critical theory, understand philosophy, analyse literature. I want to explore this learning I missed out on in school when I studied Maths and Geography instead.

I have never kept a journal and for some reason this feels easier than holding a pen to paper. It makes for easier editing and re-reading so I can improve the quality of my prose. Hopefully as these go on, my writing quality improves, as I mentioned, failed English GCSE girl here.

However, I want a place to express my experience of living in a new country, be critical about my experiences and frustrations. I want to learn how to be profound and critical with my opinion. I want to express my thoughts on literature in an artist manner. I want to do something with all the thoughts swimming around my head.