Welcome to Newsletter Dozen and the 1st Edition of 2025!

Hey hey hey. What’s up VV crew, its ya boy, Amil K, writing to you from the lovely NJ Transit (I know Ryhan is gonna love that). It has been a looooooooong January but I cannot believe we are already 1 month into 2025. We’ve had some ups and we’ve had some downs, but we made it alive and in one piece. What did I do this month let’s see: I started my spring semester at school, I watched my Eagles make it to the Super Bowl, I went snow tubing, I frequented Applebee’s for their glorious HH deals (shoutout Applebee’s fr tho), I played lots of trivia (didn’t win, I never win smh), did some cold plunges (Diego is too scared to do them), and I really gained an appreciation for Timothée Chalamet’s versatility after his performance on SNL (“Big Benny said what!” iykyk).

Anyways, enough drivel, let’s get to what you opened this email for: my subscriber update! JK, my profound, worldly, amazing, Earth-shattering insights about this silly, goofy little thing we call life. JK again, I’ll stop now. Let’s get to it.

When the lights and cameras are off, who are we really?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this notion of “performance” or “being on.” Let me explain. When we are out and about in the world, as real and authentic as we think we might be being, we are, inevitably, putting up a front. And I don’t mean this in a bad way. We maintain professionalism at our workplace, we have one side of ourselves around our family, one side of ourselves around our friends, one side of ourselves around strangers. I truly believe there are different versions of us, and that should be welcomed! There’s nothing wrong with that. It means we are multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, and more complex than meets the eye. But when all that is gone, when no one is watching, when the lights and cameras are off, are you still performing? Are you still wearing a mask? Or are you your true self, unencumbered and unapologetic? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Do you wish you were different in some way? How? Why? Do you wish you were more or less like someone? Who are you really, when no one is there to see you? And do you like that version of yourself?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions there, I got carried away. But what I’m trying to get at is: when it is just you and your eyes and your hands and your legs and your face and your mind and only you, who are you? Are you someone who would help someone struggling to carry their suitcase down the stairs? Are you someone who values time with friends and family? Are you someone who can make difficult decisions to help yourself even if it means hurting others? Are you someone who can forgive? Ugh, see I get carried away with all these rhetorical questions!

Slowly, I am learning who I am. I am learning to truly recognize the person I see standing in front of me in the mirror. I’m someone who forgives, I’m someone who forgets, I’m someone who sees, and I’m someone who loves to be seen. I think it is important to figure out the answer to the Who are you? question because this answer guides our life and our purpose. People spend a lot of time trying to figure out the purpose of life and what it is and why we are here. I say, figure out who you are. We are here, that’s a fact, instead of figuring out the why, maybe we figure out the what. What are we?

Am I good person? Do I help and uplift those around me? Do I bring joy into the room when I walk in? Am I leaving this world in a better place than I found it? Am I someone I’d want to be friends with? Do I love myself?

Well, I asked you a lot of questions. Feel free to answer any! I’d love to hear your thoughts :)

Take off your mask, you might be surprised

I mentioned this notion of “performing.” Some might misconstrue this to mean “being fake,” and that is certainly not how I am intending it. I mean it more as being on. Being on and aware and alert. Do you have people in your life who you can turn your brain off around and simply just be? Yes, this is what I am referring to. I think it’s so important to find people like this in your life. But this starts by accepting yourself. By being yourself around yourself. If you are someone who loves to dance but are too shy, push yourself to go dance. If you are someone who loves making jokes, crack the joke. Be who you are around yourself and this will help you find those who accept you for who you are. If you cannot learn to accept yourself, then how can you ever let anyone in?

I used to believe you have to be fully perfect and love yourself entirely before you can let people into your life. Now, I’m learning/trying to believe that perhaps everyone is a little broken, and we find the love for ourselves in receiving it from others. But in order to do this, we have to be open to the notion of loving ourselves. And this starts by taking off the mask. So, as we navigate life and welcome new people into our lives and see some people leaving our lives, the only constant is our own self. It is important that we learn to befriend this person, because without self-acceptance, there is no self. There is no you. And that is a damn shame.

Thank you for listening to me!

You know the drill: everything I write here is something I am actively working on improving and implementing within myself. Writing them out also helps me to visualize what to work on and how to do it. And having you as my audience holds me accountable.

If you have any thoughts, comments, or feedback, please dish it to me! I’d love to know how I can improve. I am glad to have you here on my VasaVita journey.

If you want to talk more about anything I discussed in my newsletters, or want to learn more about VasaVita, check out my website below!

See you next month!

And last but not least, the following growth check!

You all know the drill now: in the sprit of transparency and holding myself accountable, I include my audience count here to keep you apprised on my growth. We got a couple newcomers in January! 🎉

Looking forward to ~hopefully~ more growth next month! If you have any ideas or tips, feel free to share!