Welcome to Prose
[Description: "A young Michelle (24) at the Guatemala border, pointing to a green sign with 'Guatemala.' The scene features her wearing a big backpack with a yoga mat at the bottom, a smaller day pack on her side, and she’s also carrying a full plastic shopping bag. There are rural surroundings with a small building in the background under trees and sunlight."
How It Started
When I was 24, I went on a backpacking trip from Buenos Aires (Argentina) to Cancún (Mexico) travelling by bus from country to country and living out of my big backpack for six months (see above photo). At the time, the Internet existed but in the countries I visited and the hostels I was staying at, connecting to the World Wide Web was through communal computers or Internet cafés. Facebook existed too! So to keep in touch with my family and friends, I started a blog. I created a Facebook group and invited everyone, my travel friend invited her people too. And we updated everyone with a blog post each week or so, whenever we had something fun to share. You can still find that group on Facebook, it’s called “Captain’s Log”.
I would write in my Captain’s Log every time I travelled to share stories. Some magical things happened when I had that blog -
One of the readers was my friend’s Grandma Frida, she always commented on posts and became a voice of encouragement for me. She even forwarded my writing to her kids and I became friends with them too.
I enjoyed the creative process and storytelling. My readers enjoyed my writing style and vulnerability. It felt like we were in the adventure together, there was a connection, a kinship.
I grew confident in my writing and realized that a career in Marketing would suit me well.
Over the years, I have written in various capacities professionally, whether it’s ghostwriting for CEOs, writing website content, social media content, presentation decks, or fundraising cases for support and appeals. My mind is always buzzing with ideas for blogs too, sometimes I write an article on my LinkedIn account but mostly I get nervous sharing my experiences and stories because…
What if it’s not professional enough?
What if it prevents me from future career opportunities?
What if it reveals how terrible my grammar is?
What if I say something ignorant, wrong, incorrect?
I know this is some type of insecurity or imposter syndrome. And I’m going to push back on those jitters. I’m launching a new blog, a weekly sharing to my LinkedIn and those who choose to sign up for the emails. I’m going to use ChatGPT to check my grammar, 😉! I’m going to share my stories, I’m going to challenge myself to say, “So what?!?” to those insecure questions.
Introducing Prose
[Description: Prose logo with a vibrant background of alternating half-circle shapes in teal, pink, purple, and white. The title 'Prose' is written in elegant black cursive in the center.]
No longer Captain’s Log because the irony is I actually married a Ship’s Captain and this is not his blog 😂. I chose to name this blog “Prose” because my writing is often described as sounding just the way I talk. Prose is also a creative or artistic action. That embodies the feeling of this space.
It’s not going to be all professional articles related to my consulting work. That’s one of those objectionable questions in my head that says my business page is not the right place or audience but I think it is. I’m a storyteller and this place is going to be about sharing stories, some of them might even have a lesson learned or moral of the story (like fairytales do).
I imagine this being similar to my first blog, I’m going to sit here each week and write to Frida. I’m going to write as if we’re having tea or coffee together and we’re “spilling the tea” (new slang for sharing secrets and hot gossip).
I hope you will join me in this writing adventure. I hope we connect in new ways each week.
[Description: A smiling woman (me) enjoying tea in a cozy setting, wearing a pink scarf, and holding a floral teacup. A plate of sandwiches, orange juice, and decorative tableware (High Tea) are arranged on the table in front of her, with warm curtains and natural light in the background."]