Dear Kamga,

I understand … but only up to a point. I am an immigrant, so I do know how it feels to be in a country with a different language, different culture, dependent on others for pretty much everything. But I am white, female & was a child when we emigrated.

As a writer, though, I feel ya. Here we are here. Here, we might have come on different boats, but we are on the same ship together (to use a quote from Martin Buber).if we don’t write about what unites us as well as what makes us different & unique, we’ll go insane. Sure, we might be salty, (by the way, I love that culinary descriptor) or spicy 🌶, but one of the many, many things I’ve always loved about writing is how it ENCOURAGES diversity in the humanity. You’ll never find a writing teacher saying, “How many times have I told all of you, stop sounding like you & start sounding like Mark Twain!” Ha!

All of our trouble are different yet same: grammar, voice, point of view, plot twists, interesting… everything? How to make a character walk across a room naturally. How to express a thought, my thought, & make you understand me, believe me, feel my feeling. Writer’s block. Too many thoughts. Wrong words. Right words in the wrong order. Implanted memories by aliens. (That last one may just be uniquely my neighbor’s.)

So please, just keep on writing. And I’ll keep on reading. And both of us will feel less isolated, even if we can’t drive & are stuck in cities with lousy public transportation, like Denver & Aurora! 🤗