“She wasn’t looking for a Knight. She was looking for a Sword.” – Atticus
Dear Fellow Warrior,
Happy New Year! This wasn’t supposed to be my first post of the new year, but I am glad I am back in this space again with you.
Just this past Thursday, On February 20th, 9 years ago, I wrote my first blog post in this blog. I was late into the blogosphere, in 2016. My first attempt in creating a blog was June 2009. It was called “Reflections.” I quickly scrapped that. Too scared to try at that time.
I instead started a twitter account at that time, barely posting, focusing on connecting through social media, namely Facebook.
It would take me another seven years before I finally got the courage to write my first blog posts…starting this blog as Elsa, the Warrior Queen, and then shifting to Chronicles of a Warrior KQueen, to make it more “approachable,” or universal, for the lack of better words. At that time, I was taking Writer Jeff Goins, Intentional Blog course, while deeply immersed in the final courses of my PHD program.
I used this medium, during the middle of my PhD program, similar to my painting, as a place for self-apprenticeship, a safe space to embrace my creativity and authenticity, and a place for catharsis on documenting my struggles and journey with Mental Health and Intersectionality.
You can read my first post here:
Last September, 2024, during Suicide Prevention Month, I removed that post from the featured article on this blog, with a Reintroduction piece (finally!):
In this piece, I share My About section – now called My Story, explaining the purpose of the blog. I have only tweaked it slightly over the years, because it spoke to the vision and mission so perfectly.
This phrase is particularly important:
Social inclusion, building bridges and breaking barriers is core to my being and purpose.“
I think the reason why I am holding onto this blog, beyond a place to refine, hone, and practice my creativity, and chronicle my personal journey, is because I felt the mission and vision was critical, and still remains important.
And as I was reflecting about this blog space the past few days, I realized that before I even understood the concept of “DEI,” as we know today, I started this blog. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and all relevant issues have existed long before this blew up in the liberal public discourse. I know that I always talked about it in one way or another, especially in academic spaces.
And this blog was all about diversity, equity, and inclusion, before DEI became a more popular phenomenon in liberal society. I was immersed in the literature of Intersectionality, largely due to my graduate research assistantship in my PhD program, and despite the critiques, it really made a lot of sense of to me.
I was happy to have presented a paper for the first time on DEI and the notion of “Belonging” in Academia, at a recent conference. I hope to share more insights on that with future posts. In the meantime, here is a summary and reflections on that presentation:
I believe my reintroduction post from September, now shown as the featured article in this blog, can speak to highlighting the purpose of this blog and where I intend to take it. I am still in a transitional phase of my life unfortunately.
I have to continue investing in my academic future, but I believe that everything I have been doing has contributed to nurturing the kind of changemaking academic/teacher-scholar I aspire to be. It appears unconventional to the typical conventional academic, but authenticity is an important quality for the purpose of inclusion and empowerment as a leader and an educator. So I will continue and take it one step at a time.
As I write in that post: “The “Warrior KQueen” becomes a holistic representation of my personal and professional strengths: the qualities of resilience, empowerment, self-awareness and advocacy embodied by the “Warrior KQueen” align closely with both my academic and professional pursuits.“
This space has empowered my writing voice tremendously, and that’s precisely what it intended to do. I now have a YouTube Channel, a Substack, and a Medium account, where I also write and share both creative and professional content, documenting my journey in some way. So I am grateful to have started this blog that led to so many other creative ventures that remain connected to it.
Our journey in writing can be slow sometimes. But I still believe in this space, for becoming something beyond myself, and I look at these 9 years as planting the seeds.
Whether it be for a larger charitable initiative, a book derived from the blogging journey, an inspiring journal, a space that continues to house my creative ventures (poetry, painting, stories, mental health library and healing journey), or an inclusive, empowering space that builds a community of Warrior Kings and Queens, or all of the above, there is still more to come.
Nine years building and posting ad hoc was only the beginning.
It took me a while, but I was so excited last year to finally create a logo for my blog! And with a logo, I have yet to explore so many more exciting services and contributions!
When I turned 40 last year, I noted that I embraced the brand of the Warrior KQueen for the past decade, and I will embrace it into the next decade of my life…
Perhaps a little more strategically, honoring my evolution as an intersectional writer/blogger/poet/artist/scholar/activist.
I will continue to write here, and continue to document my journey, try to tailor to the reader, and improve my craft in writing.
I do want to continue improving my craft. I find myself to be a well-rounded writer but it gets challenging sometimes when I shift into different types of writing.
You have to nurture every type of writing separately. For example, online writing is not the same as print writing, or academic or grant/business writing.
And I am still a work in progress on all fronts, but there is talent that can be harnessed and that should be earning both financial and social capital.
I get sad sometimes that I haven’t found my tribe yet, but I refuse to be a cynic about it. I know you are out there.
I notice that people who don’t want to support you in your writings are people who know you are good enough to be great, but don’t want anything to do with helping you become great. They don’t want to see you succeed.
Please do not be intimidated by women who are fierce, formidable. Some of us have to be this way because we are tired of being invisibilized, blocked, ignored, undercounted, undermined, pulled down, but we are meant for so much more.
If anything I think my story speaks to resilience and never giving up despite adversity. If the blogosphere is dead now, much of this content can be repurposed, I just need more time to reflect on how, and in the meantime, keep writing.
Perhaps I have said this before, but greatness is seen in continuous action. With writing, you can strategize, but you only lose, you only fail, if you stop writing altogether. So no matter if I am writing on social media, Medium, Substack, or my two personal websites/blogs, I know I am succeeding.
I keep going because I know that my voice is undeniably important, beyond the desire for belonging and authenticity.
It is not about self-importance or humility. It is about knowing that the message I share with the world, beyond the words, seen in my persistence, resistance and mere existence is powerful, unique, and necessary.
The majority of people in your life may not see it. I still keep going through the hurt. And I realize it will continue to hurt, and we have to push through that. And that’s what I am proud of.
Not many have the strength to keep writing when more people in their life resent them for their talents and message and even the ability to keep going in life. I have a great deal of life experience now to confirm that most people will resent you simply because you, despite all the disadvantages, with all the odds against you, as the underdog, are unwilling to give up.
Thank you so much for reading my posts and following me here in this space over the past 9 years. In these 9 years I have written about social justice issues, my intersectionality, intersectionality in general, mental health, suicide prevention, Pakistan, my PhD journey, other social issues, curing stigmas, poetry, and more.
Cheers to 9 years of blogging with the Chronicles of the Warrior KQueen, and I pray I am able to continue this venture, here, or in other spaces. I pray I am able to make a larger impact somehow from the stories, art, poetry, paintings, and mental health, social justice resources and fundraising activities I have initiated or promoted through this platform.
Once again, I want to thank everyone, all you warriors and allies out there, for giving me the gift of your readership. I am going to give this 9th year a shot, and pray that a greater value emerges from it. It already has… especially if you took the time to click and read this post…especially if it connected me to you…
In Solidarity, Peace, Warmth, and Blessings,
Your Sister, Dr. Elsa
The Warrior KQueen
“She wasn’t looking for a Knight. She was looking for a Sword.” – Atticus
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