Being someone who's interested in a lot of different things, and has been exposed to a wide range of communities, friends, and working environments, I feel like I had to compartmentalize a different part of myself to fit in these groups. I'd dress down when I went to coding events. My fiction novel friends don't even know about my day job. And it wasn't because I had to, or someone told me to. I just felt off feeling different.
Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post about feeling small after reflecting on my experiences working in different environments as a South Asian woman in tech. I think it was very raw and true to what I was feeling at the time.
Since then, I haven’t posted in a while on here because I was having trouble figuring out what to share.
Now, I feel different about it.
I want to be f*cking loud. I want to be elle woods with a bright pink blazer. I want to be bold and ask for what I want.
I want to be valued for being different. I used to worry a lot about taking too much space, but the web is infinite - take as much space as you want. There's so much noise on the internet already - people can pick and choose what they engage with.
So now, I'm going to start sharing things without worrying whether what compartment it falls under. You're going to get engineer, investor, builder, photographer, writer, student, and traveler Mathu who's interested in consumer trends, coding, looking at exciting new tech, fashion, gilmore girls, Taylor Swift, obsessed with Harry Potter who also enjoys making fun experiences on the web. And this list has more room to add on ... :)
I always see twitter threads talking about finding a niche but I find that worrying about whether something I share fits into what an audience may have signed up for takes the entire fun out of writing and creating. I found the most serendipitous friendships and conversations come out of genuinely sharing things that interest me. I’m going to try to experiment with different writing styles too!
And maybe I’ll post, or won’t post. Either way, come along the way for all the chaos :)
Woo 🥂🥂love this, I want you to be LOUD I want to hear what you have to say
I adore this <3 so excited for this new era