First one is the charm

Ever since Instagram got restricted in our country, I've been feeling a mix of emotions. I’ve realized that even though creating content on Instagram can be exhausting and sometimes we don’t see the results we hope for, I genuinely enjoy sharing my life with you. Whether it’s daily snaps, my thoughts, or things I’m reading or watching, I love the interaction. While I aim to share informative content, I also enjoy sharing bits of my daily life and finding common ground with you. Chatting about a series or movie with you is something I really appreciate. This restriction has made me feel a bit "disconnected."

My podcast channel is mainly educational, so I don’t share much about my personal life there. This urge to share gave me the idea to start a blog. I wanted to write it in English because it might help you learn new words in context.

I’m not sure if I can turn this into a regular habit or if I can write consistently. It might end up being just one post. I don’t want to set high expectations for myself because I become very unproductive under pressure. Promising to write an article every week, for example, negatively affects me and kills my creativity.

But for now, let’s say I have this idea.

You’ll see Dostoevsky’s "White Nights" on the cover of this post, and there's a reason for that. For a long time, I’ve been telling you in my English book recommendations to avoid classic books as much as possible because their language can be heavy and demotivating. I used to say that books written in recent years are more comprehensible and you’re likely to encounter phrases that are commonly used in everyday life. And now, I’m doing the complete opposite.

In the past few months, I’ve read so many self-help and rom-com books, you know, the cheesy ones. I realized I was getting tired of the predictability and, sadly, I have to use this word, the "shallowness." My need to read something literary has peaked, but I didn’t want to dive too deep. I’m not about to start reading Proust in English. I haven’t even managed to read Proust in Turkish yet. But I’ve read the Turkish version of "White Nights" before and remember that the language wasn’t too difficult. Plus, I finished it in about two days because it’s a very short book and I was really curious about what would happen.

So, as soon as I finished my last book, I eagerly ordered "White Nights" and it hooked me from the very first sentence. This was exactly what I needed. It felt like diving into cool waters from hot sands. I needed a few magical words, some literature, or maybe characters who feel everything deeply. Right now, I’m still at the beginning, and I want to read it slowly and savor every bit. Maybe it’ll give you an idea too... Vocabulary:

exhausting: yorucu

genuinely: içten bir şekilde

mainly: çoğunlukla

urge: dürtü

consistently: düzenli bir şekilde

set high expectations: büyük beklentiler koymak

avoid: kaçınmak

comprehensible: anlayışılır

encounter: denk gelmek, karşılaşmak

cheesy: basit, ucuz

predictability: tahmin edilirlik

shallowness: yüzeysellik

eagerly: istekli bir şekilde

hook: yakalamak

savor: tadını çıkarmak