July, oh July

Thank you for showing me that i shouldn’t lose hope.

- Charlotte Eriksson, Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself

July, oh July. You flew by so fast but you’ve been a month that was filled with blessings, and lessons.

I’m still very much unemployed.

BUT…. I’m going to only look at the bright side of things because that’s the challenge I gave myself; each time I’m faced with an obstacle, I’m going to ask myself, “What can I take away from this experience?” or “How can I be thankful for this redirection?”

It had been a tough journey to program myself to think this way. I’m not going to lie that I didn’t have those days where I dwell on my past or worry about my future. I’m still human, right? It’s not easy. It takes a lot of patience with yourself and practice. There needs to be a conscious effort to switch my mindset when I start to spiral.

Counting my blessings has helped me tremendously in focusing on the brighter side of things in every situation. For every negative thought, I tell myself, “But this good thing happened too” and instantly, it puts my mind at ease. I would feel slightly better and proceed with my day.

Working on myself has got to be one of the best investments in my life. To many more self-discoveries in my self-love journey.

Scroll through my newsletter as I share my blessings, lessons, and epiphany in July.

✨ Blessings I’ve received in July that I’m ever so grateful for:

• Featured in FEMALE magazine

• Posted my first YT vlog

• Met one of my favourite authors, Hwang Bo-Reum and got the book signed

• Received PR packages (apart from books)

• Jack Edwards commented on my TikTok video

• Got the opportunity to collaborate with another book distribution company in Singapore

• Launched a new passion project, “One Unforgettable Read” and the first episode gained 100K+ views

• Made new bookish friends during a silent reading event

• Finally took the step to film book reviews and book recommendation videos in front of the camera

• My favourite publishing house, Faber Books, followed me on Instagram

• Reached 3K followers on Instagram

• 300+ subscribers (and one of my shorts gained 56K+ views) in one month of starting a BookTube channel

• Spent time with my family and my furbabies

I got featured on FEMALE Magazine Singapore

✨ Lessons that I’ve learnt in July:

• I’ve got to be my own cheerleader.

• Learn not to feel guilty (often stems from imposter syndrome) about celebrating my wins.

• If not now, then when?

• I let people think or say what they want about me. What matters the most is what I think or say about myself.

• In the creative/content creation world, everyone is inspired by each other and most of the content concepts are being recreated in one way or another. I need to learn how not to be so worked up when people try to do something similar to my style because, at the end of the day, I need to focus on what I’ve created rather than getting distracted by what others are creating. I should not even give a second of my attention to things like this because it’s only going to ruin my process. I’m not trying to normalise it but I believe that when we work on our authenticity and create what genuinely matters to us, we would still stand out.

✨ Epiphany that eventually made so much sense:

EVERYTHING happened for a reason. Every redirection led me to where I am today. I had a lot of “aha” moments in July which blew my mind. I’m immensely thankful for all the blessings and lessons in the past few years.

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July Chronicles:

I swear to god, job hunting can be so dreadful but I’m glad that I try to keep myself occupied creatively instead of doing nothing at home. The first week of July felt so surreal because I got featured in a magazine!! (Backstory: When I was 6 years old, one of my classmates was featured in a magazine. I remember feeling so upset that my face wasn’t in the magazine too. I even angrily asked my mother why she hadn’t sent my photos to them! 😂 Who would have thought that 23 years later, I would be featured in FEMALE Singapore, sharing my love for reading?) It’s amazing how life comes full circle.

The second week of July was very productive. At the beginning of the week, I went on a day trip to Johor Bahru! On a Friday night, I attended a silent reading event at Book Bar SG and the next day, I got the opportunity to meet one of my favourite authors (Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop) at a book signing event. Listening to her talk about her career switch from being an engineer to a writer was so motivating and just what I needed to hear since I’m amidst switching careers as well. After the event, I visited a Korean book cafe which was so apt to the book too. I’ve visited that book cafe before and it felt so great to be back again.

The rest of the month consists of applying for jobs, unsuccessful interviews and upgrading my content creation skills. I’ve hit a couple of milestones on various social media platforms ever since I started taking content creation seriously. The best part is that I’ve always dreamt about receiving PR packages and it’s finally happening! (*little happy dance) I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who supported me from the beginning. Sending me all the love and the “I’m rooting for you.” messages. On days when I felt like giving up or felt that it was impossible, these are the messages that kept me going.

Keep reading as I share my food and media consumption in July.

🍽️☕️ Foods & Coffee I’ve tried in July:

• I finally got to try the dumplings at Din by Din Tai Fung. It was just so delicious and I’m definitely going back again for my next trip to Johor Bahru.

• I went to Huggs Collective on one of the days to update my creative portfolio with a friend. We were there from morning till night. So, I got to try their chocolate croissant and an iced latte for brunch. It was average. I had their grilled chicken tacos and that was really good!

• I found my new favourite coffee place, ‘Luckin Coffee’. I tried their iced minty coconut latte and iced toffee nut latte. For the humid weather in Singapore, it was heavenly and with their app, we get discounts for the coffee. So thankful to have discovered them. They’re my go-to coffee place from now on.

• My parents and I went to Chong Pang Food Centre over one weekend, and we had the BEST hokkien mee and durian cendol. As I’m writing this, I’m craving for the Hokkien mee.

Xiaolongbao from Din by Din Tai Fung in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Luckin’ Coffee at Woods Square

Grilled Chicken Tacos at Huggs Collective

📚 Books I’ve read in July:

It wasn’t my best reading month. so, I only read one book and I think it’s okay. I prefer reading at my own pace. I read More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. I loved it and it was such a comfort read. I broke down at one of the chapters though. There’s this quote that caught my attention and I wanted to share it with you all here.

“When you're sad, don't try to hold it in. It's okay to cry a lot. The tears are there because you've got to go on living. You're going on living, which means there'll be more things to cry about. They'll come at you from all sides. So don't ever try to hide from the sadness. When it comes, cry it out. It's better to keep moving forward with that sadness; that's what it means to live."

It’s okay to cry. I’d rather cry it all out than keep it all in.

After reading that book, my first thought was to add Jimbocho District to my list of places to visit in Japan and to bring this book along!

my final annotation from More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

🍿 Films I’ve watched in July:

• Vanished into the Night - meh, it was interesting at first but I kind of expected the ending.

• Anyone But You - meh too.

• Maharaja - solid film in terms of the storytelling perspective and the suspense aspect. I was engrossed from the beginning till the end. Vijay Sethupathi is one of my favourite actors. If you give him any role, he’ll ace it. I also read another review of the film which got me thinking a lot and I agree with it. (I’ll share it here.)

• The Devil Wears Prada - I know I’m way too late but omg, what a film! Meryl Streep is a brilliant actor. The way she presented herself as Miranda Priestly was mindblowing. Actors who mould themselves into their character have all my love and respect in the world!

Follow me on letterboxd for more film reviews.

🎧 Songs/Podcasts I’ve listened to in July:

I’ve recently created a playlist called, “Unemployment Diaries” on spotify because I’ve been discovering a lot more music for the past 2 months since I’m bored most of the time and music is a part of my soul. Not forgetting, the entire Hamilton album is on repeat too as my motivation while I’m writing and doing any work.

I’ve also discovered a new podcast, “Self Obsessed” by Tam Kaur. I’ve been following Tam on YouTube for 2 years now and I love her energy. She’s all about self-love and I’m here for it. I wasn’t aware that she started a podcast. This would be perfect to listen to during my long morning/evening walks.

✨ Quotes that lived rent-free in July:

This quote is from a poem, “Notebook Fragments” by Ocean Vuong. It just keeps popping up in my mind throughout July and that’s how I truly feel. All my life, I’m either stuck in the past or I’m overthinking about the future instead of living in the moment. In the past year, it’s something that I've been constantly working on and this poem serves as a reminder for me. Thank you, Ocean Vuong, for these beautiful words.

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I’m still figuring out how I want the format of my weekly/monthly newsletter to be but for now, this is good. I’ll be transferring my past musings from WordPress in the next few days and, my goal for August is to plan my content for Substack.

I hope you had a wonderful July and I wish the same for August!

With love, Hamsavalli.