Everything, Everywhere, All at once

a thousand little milestones

Hi everyone,

It has been such an eventful few months and I have been wanting to sit down and just tell you all what has been happening in my life. So here I am, finally taking the time to pour it all out.

The first thing I want to say is that I am genuinely proud of myself. Sometimes I don’t stop to acknowledge how far I’ve come, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Growing this space to one thousand subscribers in just a few months is not something I take lightly at all. It took a lot of consistency, a lot of showing up even when I didn’t feel like it, and a lot of patience with myself. Honestly, it has been worth it. Seeing the number climb, watching people engage with my writing, and knowing that I’m not just writing into a void has been one of the most rewarding parts of my year. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for reading, for opening my emails, for leaving comments, for quietly sitting with my words. I love you all, and I don’t take your presence for granted one bit.

Another thing I want to share is that I’ve been getting published in different literary magazines, which is still something I’m trying to wrap my head around. I have pieces out in Brittle Paper, Punocracy, Kalahari Review, Afritondo, African Writer Magazine, Shallow Tales Review, and forthcoming pieces in Efiko Magazine, Akpata Magazine and elsewhere. Every time I see my work in one of these places, it feels a little surreal. A part of me still can’t believe it’s my name on those pages. It has been such an interesting experience because it means more people beyond this Substack community are seeing and engaging with my writing. Sometimes it feels like my words are stretching further than I imagined they could, and that is such a special feeling.

Outside of writing, life has been… intense. I did my internship during this period and it was one of those experiences that cannot be summed up neatly in one word. It was exciting and stressful at the same time. There were days when I genuinely enjoyed it and felt like I was learning something valuable, and there were also days when I counted the hours, wishing it would be over. Alongside that, I was also working on my project. I managed to complete chapters one to three during that same period, which was a huge task in itself. When I look back now, I realise I didn’t rest at all during the holiday. If I wasn’t at my internship, I was working on my project, and in the middle of all that, I was still trying to be consistent here on Substack and in submitting my work to literary magazines. It felt like I was constantly moving from one thing to the next, without pausing to breathe.

Now I’m back in school, and it’s my final year. The beginning of the end, literally. It’s a strange mix of emotions. On one hand, I’m excited to finally be here, to be so close to the finish line after years of work. On the other hand, there’s this quiet nervousness about what comes next. Final year feels heavy because it carries all these expectations, all this pressure to have it figured out. I’m trying to remind myself that it’s okay not to know everything yet, that it’s okay to just take it one day at a time.

So that’s where I am at the moment: balancing school, project work, writing, and trying not to lose myself in the process. It hasn’t been easy, but when I look back at how much I’ve done and how far I’ve come, I feel grateful. Writing has been my constant, this space has been my home, and all of you have been such a big part of why I keep going. Thank you, again and again, for being here.

If you’re interested in reading my published works on literary magazines, here are some links for you to access them. ❤️

https://brittlepaper.com/2025/08/letters-from-aba-women-tomilola-adejumo-fiction/

https://www.afritondo.com/afritondo/a-thousand-ways-to-leave-a-city

https://punocracy.com/the-films-we-will-never-make-because-god-forbid-nigerian-youth-show-emotions/

https://theshallowtalesreview.com.ng/the-hunger-that-remains-tomilola-adejumo/

https://punocracy.com/memoirs-from-the-bottom-of-the-pot/

I See Visions, I Dream Dreams | African Writer

The Priestess Walks Like Water | Kalahari Review