Hi, guys. I'm currently in church and it seems like I came here a little bit too early, but I didn't exactly have a choice because that's when everyone else was leaving for church.

As you can already tell, I didn't start this newsletter when I should have. To be very honest, I don't know how time just flew by so fast. One minute it was Monday, the next minute, it's Friday and I'm at my aunty's house.

I'm having a slight stomach ache. I don't know if it's because of my period or I'm just hungry, but that's impossible because I ate so much yesterday. Whenever I come to my aunty's house, it's almost like the spirit of gluttony comes upon me immediately. I just eat. As long as it's offered to me, I will eat it. I'm constantly filled.

Earlier this week, I learned an important lesson. I was going to do something for someone and I was trying to negotiate remuneration and all that, but I was scared to tell the amount I had in mind, but after so much battling, I just put it out there and in my mind, I was like, “they’re definitely going to reject it”.

Lo and behold, they didn't. Infact, they said and I quote “We’ll pay that and even more sef…” It was at that point that I realised that if I had said the other amount I had in mind, I would have been selling myself seriously short and I would have hated the job.

So, what I learned; you have to go for what you want, because I wouldn't have gotten to that point if I didn't persist. I didn't give up. Negotiate well, say the amount you're scared of. It's better to negotiate from up than the bottom. That was honestly what was going through my head, “even though they don't agree, I will just see what they have in mind and see if I can work with it”. There's another lesson, but I can't seem to remember it.

This other one is unrelated, but somewhat related to something else that happened during the week; you have to assert dominance or just stand your ground. That's the only way people will take you seriously and you'll put yourself out there.

Whenever I think about the life I want for myself, I just know that I will have to do a lot of things that make me uncomfortable (now). I'm a shy person and just a chill, gentle person, which makes people underestimate me or how do they say it, “look me less.” I need to put my foot on the ground and do things.

I always tell people that I'm not usually the person who's somewhere and doesn't like to make themselves known. If I'm there, I want to do something. People should know that I was there. I don't even want to work in the background, I want the visibility that comes with doing good work. It's why taking on a new responsibility makes me anxious because I always want to do good work.

This feels like rambling, but these are some of the thoughts that came to mind throughout the week. Away from all that, I'm going on an adventure on Friday. I will tell you all about it in next week's newsletter. It's exciting, at least to me.

Let me know what you were up to last week.

See you next week, bye x. 💕