#001 - Start!

First, it's such a thrill that almost 400 amazing people have subscribed to this newsletter, with 200+ early circlers in the first 48 hours. Thank you for joining the circle.

Background:?Full Circle is a project that's been in the incubator for months now. I wanted a platform to connect more, voice relative ideas, create solutions and share stories about my transformation and growth. The aim of this is to encourage more introspection, gratitude and community.?

While I intend to share my stories, I will also welcome your stories to be shared here. Together, we would connect, share and be transformed by our personal development and growth stories. So, let's get right into it!

How it started:?Five years ago, I had no purpose or plan; but I had passion and potential. I was an amateur writer exploring the many writing styles I knew then. I immersed myself in reading books that mattered then, writing poetry as a means to escape to an end that only existed in my head; I was making some money off writing articles, drama scripts, poems for spoken word artists, stories for entries, and simply exploring ways to string my vocabulary together. Today, what feels like a Concordia of creativity and competence was a craft in a cave, my comfort zone at the time.?

I went from taking ushering jobs every weekend to writing every other day and volunteering at community service projects for individuals and brands who wanted to fulfil their corporate social responsibility or perhaps get enough pictures for a portfolio and make enough money to leave the country in the name of being a social worker and caregiver. Well, that served us both.?

Yes, I was so fixated on volunteering, visiting communities, collaborating on projects including; sharing hygiene kits as a way to combat period poverty; renovating schools, donating books and sewing uniforms to help kids stay in school; installing boreholes and taps to solve clean water challenges in communities, supporting pregnant women from low-income households in specific communities; providing free health checks and psychosocial support; clearing farmlands and planting corn, pepper, and what not to improve agriculture and food security; donating items to motherless homes; cooking rice for kids on the streets on Christmas Day; engaging in the plant tree campaigns to tackle climate change; and the many others I can't even remember, didn't document, but happily volunteered my time and resources to serve.?

In all these, I had passion and potential but needed a purpose or a plan.?

Full circle moment:?Five years later, I'm still writing. My skills have greatly improved; my gift and skills have made room for me, opened doors to opportunities that pay the bills, and made me serve kings, technically and queens. My interest in social impact has gone beyond merely participating in a one-off project to working on campaigns and projects serving communities at scale, improving people's lives in countries and regions, contributing to creating sustainable economies and putting Africa on the global map.

Mental notes:?

• Start where you are, then pivot!
• Until you serve kings, don't stop serving.?
• Grow in circles until you come full circle.
• Whatever you're doing now, put your best in it. No matter how small that project is or intangible your contributions to scaling it are, be the best version of yourself while at it.?
• The dots will connect, the puzzles will fit and most importantly, what you do while waiting is all that matters.?
• Everything you do today will have a significant impact in your life tomorrow.
• The question is; 'What are you doing now? And what are you going to do about it?'

Between: Are you on Threads? You can connect with me; let's create our kind of threads one stitch at a time. Here you go:?https://www.threads.net/@gloriaedukere

Love, speed & thank you,

Gloria.