If you want the Italian posts, you can find them all here: SEZIONE ITALIANA🇮🇹. If you prefer reading in English, then please keep going with this post.
Hello my pen friends <3
How are you all? I hope you are well and you enjoyed the summer, or if you are anything like me, that you escaped the summer heat :D.
It’s been a while. I wanted to take a month's break, but it looks like it’s been more than two months 👀. To be honest, a lot happened in my life between August and today, and I kind of wanted to sort things out to gain a clear mind I was looking for to be able to come back here to do my usual posts about how life can get in the way and how you can get the most of it, enhancing your potential. BUT! that clear mind is not here yet, like AT ALL, and instead of delaying my urge to write, I just decided that for the moment, I will just write and share with all of you my life journey, as imperfect, confusing, cloudy and difficult as it might be. I am here because I am sure I am not the only one, and maybe all this chatting around can make other people feel less alone in this, too.
It’s been a very stressful period, which for me, means a LOT of overthinking and rearranging things around in my life and in my head. I found myself lacking the time and energy to be online that much, but it’s fine, you know? It’s what I needed. We need to give ourselves permission to do what we feel we have to do. I have spent months fighting unhealthy living conditions, breathing mould, having to throw away most of my belongings as they had green fluff on them, fighting a landlord for reimbursement, and having to walk away from it for my mental health's sake. Again, it’s ok. It helped me put things into perspective. I wanted to do a clear-out, and that helped a lot! I have decided to digitalise my journalling practice, I got myself an iPad mini with a paper-like screen protector, a pen (spoiler alert: if you are not an illustrator, you can get a LogitechPen, which costs half the ApplePen, and it’s brilliant!) and an agenda-like cover so it looks like I am writing on paper. Sort of. Still getting used to it. However, the idea of not having to carry around years and years of journals really excites me. I tried to digitalise my previous journals, so I have everything stored on my iPad. 🙃
In the meantime I am also looking for a graduate job, because I need new stimuli and excitement in my life, I feel a little dormant at the moment and I do not like this feeling. I am also ok with looking for a hybrid job, I am ready to put a temporary stop to my life being split between Italy and the UK. Will see how that goes. My partner was the one who gave me the initial push, as he loves the UK and wants to find a job there, opening a whole lot of issues for him, as he will need to get a visa for EU nationals. I have to say, the UK makes it very difficult to get visas after Brexit, with lots of issues and apostilles, to discourage people from doing it. However, he's pursuing it anyway. So, I promised myself not to get too stressed about that, as it's not directly an application I need to do for myself. I will assist him, but not take the lead. I promised, and I want to hold myself accountable. My mental health comes first, ALWAYS!
So yeah, CV tailoring, cover letter writing, house search, visa search, job search, I can well see why I feel a little burned out. But I am hanging in there, one thing at a time. I have prioritised the job search, I have a couple of applications I want to go through, once that’s done I’ll keep looking, once I find the job I will then find the house, and will let my partner take care of the VISA and stuff. This way I gained a lot of my time back, I feel less overwhelmed and I also started to take advantage of the career help my old university offers for all alumni, which to be honest with you it’s absolutely great. They gave me lots of pointers and links and I can book as many calls with them as I want. It’s just brilliant! Without feeling overwhelmed I gained my time back and I can enjoy the little things more.
So yeah, that’s what has been going on in my life, I know I am on the verge of getting out of this period of feeling stuck, a period that to be honest I have been in since the separation from my ex-husband in 2021.
It’s the spring of a new era 🌸, my friends, wish me luck.
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Love you all, and if nobody has told you yet today: you are an amazing person and deserve everything this world has to offer 🤍
Annalisa x

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Välkommen tillbaka!
Good writing, as always, and solid advice on mental health. It's easy to let it take a back seat in these hectic times but it is our best weapon.
Are you doing your Drops streaks? XD
The visa stuff is so annoying. 😭 My British partner is on the other side, trying to figure out how he can stay in Germany with me after we’ve decided to leave the UK.