The Husk gained a lot of new subscribers this month. I am grateful for you all and pretty surprised.1
When I started The Husk (this is still happening if I’m being honest) the first people I approached were, understandably, perplexed. I imagine they thought, Who is this random woman contacting me about what? A newsletter? What’s that? A blog?
So it took quite a bit of trust on their part.
For that, I am forever thankful. I had nothing to show when I reached out in those first days.
The Husk was a half-baked concept at that point. I knew what I’d like to name it. I had ideas of what I’d write about. I didn’t know exactly what I’d do but I knew my strengths. I also knew that there were Micronesians who were doing amazing things, things that were more interesting and more newsworthy than some of the stories I worked on as a reporter. There were people getting press coverage for doing the bare minimum, doing something boring, sometimes they weren’t doing anything, quite frankly.
I’ve read news and I’ve written news about things that were significantly less impactful, less interesting, less notable than what I saw Micronesians accomplishing every day.
The good thing about not knowing what you’re doing is that you don’t know what you’re doing. So you just keep doing and trying things and seeing what sticks. For me, I followed my instincts. I’ve always had a nose for news and I’m good at finding a story. There are stories to be told in every space.
There are stories here on The Husk that aren’t written anywhere else. This doesn't exist without the Micronesian creators and professionals willing to go along for the ride with me, to respond to a random message from this strange woman babbling about some sort of newsletter. It’s because of their trust that this all exists. I am and will always be grateful for that.
Every time someone lets me in, pulls back the curtain so I catch a glimpse of their creative process, or every time someone takes me back to the beginnings of their journey, I am bursting to write about it. I want to shout it from a megaphone. You hear that! They did this cool thing and you can too! 2
All of that to say: Welcome to the first Micronesian Monday Digest.
If you’re new here, you might not have read these early features on Micronesians. They are worth a read because, without them, I don’t know if we would have the stories published this month or the exciting features that will come.
Thank you to everyone who pulled back the curtain for The Husk, for me. 🙏🏽
Enjoy.
Thank you for reading. Write to you again soon.
This month’s Wednesday pieces were a fun experiment with audio and also with balancing my workload. The results are encouraging and I’m looking forward to more storytelling experiments on The Husk.
There’s a selfish part of me that’s probably writing this for me only. Really, I think I’m writing all of this for 9-year-old Jasmine big forehead, flat-nosed Micronesian girl growing up in Guam, obsessed with Britney’s Oops album and aspiring to be Judy Blume or Sharon Creech or Ann M. Martin. I think I actually just want 9-year-old Jasmine to read this, to read about people who are way cooler than Britney Spears or Ann M. Martin who also come from the islands she comes from doing badass shit in the world. So this is all for me. LOL. jk it’s for all of us!!!!