Monday Postcard #201 – Anniversary Postcard
200 Monday Postcards and this 201st was written on one of my rare trips in 2021. It feels very different to the time when I started this Monday Postcard format: I regularly boarded a plane, often even at weekly intervals. Like so many of us, I took travelling for granted. It feels strange to look back on three years of Monday Postcards and how carefree we could travel and cross borders. I wrote the first Postcard shortly after returning from Siem Reap, Cambodia, a trip fulfilling my long dream of visiting Angkor Wat. Naturally, I started writing weekly Postcards to share my travel stories and about my life as an expat living in Asia. I may have started The Pink Lookbook to share travel tips but it soon became more – I saw that many of you enjoyed learning more about what it is like to live abroad, getting insights into other cultures and reading some funny intercultural misunderstandings.
The more I shared, the more I realized how much I actually enjoyed writing. I came up with new topics easily and decided to share and explore whatever was on my mind that week. When I look through the Monday Postcard archive on the website now, I see a lot of topics relating to start-ups, digital businesses and feminism. Social media may lead us to believe that our lives have become superficial and that followers want to be “tricked” into believing an overly polished life. This Postcard-project has taught me the opposite: it allowed me to connect with my readers because I wanted to share real stories and opinions. I wanted to share an “unfiltered” version of my life as an entrepreneur across continents. This means to share the honest truth: How does it feel to move solo across countries? What challenges do female entrepreneurs face? Is the start-up scene really like the “Shark Tank circus”? With every Postcard, I am amazed, excited and happy to see all the positive feedback.
A Postcard I still remember was #42 about “The Perfect Size” in August 2018. It was one of the first Postcards where I decided to openly talk about a very personal topic. So many of you commented, emailed and texted me about how much you could relate to being body-shamed and that my thoughts helped you feel more confident and ignore negative comments. Right after publishing, I knew this was the right thing. In Postcard #180, I openly discussed the questions about children we are all being asked as women – how intrusive they are and how these questions reflect the pressure on us. At first, I was hesitant to talk openly about my views on this topic. I was well aware that it was a polarizing one. But when I received your feedback and realized how much it resonated with so many of you, I felt even more confident that we need more honesty in times when the internet floods our mind with more and more superficiality.
I am a very private person. I may share snippets of my life on social media and on this website, but I do not like to invite everyone into every single detail of my personal life. Nevertheless, Postcards like these two made me realize how important it is to speak about these personal topics. Hence, with every Postcard, I also grew. I dug deeper into certain topics. I explored my own thoughts: Was I right in taking a certain point of view? Or, did I have to adapt my perspective? Was there more to learn about the topic?
Writing this weekly update, allowed me not only to explore my own thoughts more thoroughly about various topics but also to start my week with a positive ritual. On a Monday morning, I head to my favourite café or enjoy a good cup of coffee at home and write to you. Whatever may be going on that week, the time for the Postcard has become sacrosanct. And very often, it helps me to refocus and put my mind at ease before a stressful week ahead.
At 200+ Postcards, I still do not feel tired. I have a long list of topics lined up for the weeks ahead and hope that you enjoy reading this weekly update as much as I do when I write it. Thank you for being on this journey with me!
More Monday Postcards
Monday Postcard #200 – Fast and Furious
Monday Postcard #199 – Going to Extremes
Monday Postcard #198 – Alone But not Lonely