Tag: the unknown

My Experiences with the Unknown

On By Alice StrathernIn Beginnings, Personal

The unknown is always present. In every moment. In every aspect of life.

There comes a time when you have to take chances and see what happens. You have to proceed without certainty and be willing to accept the discomfort that comes with it.

In my personal and creative life, the unknown has led me to discover more of myself. Without a structured plan. Without knowing all the answers. Only by trusting that the next steps will be revealed as I keep moving forward.

Here are three of my most important experiences with the unknown.

Unknown Experience #1: Moving to a Different Country

I came to Canada in 2015 as a student. I got into a journalism program. I knew I wanted to experience it for the full two years it lasted, but I had no idea what would happen next. Would I like it? Would I be able to adapt to a completely different environment? How badly would I struggle with culture shock?

When I finished the program, a job opportunity came up. I took it. I wanted to know what it was like to work in a different country. How different would the work dynamics be? What kind of tasks would challenge me? How could I use my journalistic skills and all the other skills I had developed in my professional life?

At the same time, I still didn’t know how much my life was going to change in the long run. It turns out I got engaged a year after I started working. Then, after being married for two years, we welcomed our baby, which led me to my next experience with the unknown. Parenthood is a whole new world.

Unknown Experience #2: Becoming a Mom

It’s true what they say: babies don’t come with manuals. Every moment is new. Every single day is a new experience. It’s tough to predict how a day is going to unfold, especially in the first weeks of the baby’s life. It’s a major change.

What I did know was that I wanted to be the best mom I could be. And I wasn’t sure I was doing it right. Soon I learned that there was no point in comparing myself to my own mom or to other new moms sharing their experiences online. I also learned that being fully engaged in the experience, with its ups and downs, would help me develop a stronger intuition.

I now know that I won’t always have all the answers. However, doing my best is always enough.

Unknown Experience #3: Becoming a self-published author

I promised myself that I would finish writing a book before my baby was born. I did it. I had it professionally edited and was ready to go. Small detail: I didn’t know when I would be able to self-publish it. I had just become a mom and taken on new responsibilities.

At first, I wanted to figure out how to juggle everything at once. That felt reasonable. Later on, I realized that the healthiest thing to do was to take one step at a time. First of all, I needed to adjust to my new life. Afterwards, I’d learn all the necessary steps to self-publish a book.

I didn’t need the perfect system to balance life as a mom and life as a self-published author. Instead, I needed to prioritize responsibilities and give myself grace when things on the writing side took longer than expected.

The path revealed itself as experiences unfolded. Having everything mapped out is just not always possible. And that’s important to accept. Walking into the unknown means being open to rhythms and actions that you had not considered. And they can work too.

The unknown can actually be a safe place to meet yourself more freely. I think that’s a perspective worth considering.

 

What do you think?

Exploring the Other Side of the Unknown

On By Alice StrathernIn Inspiration, Personal

What’s on the other side of the unknown?

I don’t know why, but this question popped up in my head the other day.

If we think about it, the unknown is present in every aspect of our lives. Every day. And the other side of it doesn’t have to be scary. From a more curious perspective, the unknown can be defined as something waiting to be explored.

As I kept pondering the question, I thought of the time when all I ever wanted to read was existentialist books. It all started in my late teens. I was intrigued by Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Franz Kafka. I was happy to discover that there was a literary world different from feel-good books, romance, and anything that ended with “and they lived happily ever after”.

Back then, I wasn’t a fan of any of those themes. I loved that those authors offered stories that reflected “the other side” of life. Something that was ‘dark and mysterious’ and not painted with pastels. Something that would leave a mark when putting the book away.

Time passed. The pandemic, a new unknown, came along and confinement changed my interests. Existentialism no longer felt like the topic I wanted to keep digging deeper, especially in a challenging phase. All I had ever known in literature, circled around those authors. I began to ask myself: “What’s something new I could explore?”

That was the opportunity to expand my horizons after years of the same type of books. I explored some classics like Dracula by Bram Stoker, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, as well as a variety of authors such as José Saramago, Isabel Allende, and Clarice Lispector.

Later on I began a further exploration when coming across fragments of books by Mary Oliver, Anaïs Nin, Octavia Butler, Zadie Smith, and Sylvia Plath. These days, any book that sparks a sense of curiosity in me is my next step towards the other side of the unknown.

It’s fascinating how a little nudge can stay in your mind long enough to grab your attention. It’s like allowing life to ask “what else is there?”, and at the same asking it to surprise you in delightful ways. Once the seed of curiosity sprouts, it goes on and on. Then again, it doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating. There’s only more aspects of yourself to discover.

What’s on the other side of your unknown?