Her Chosen Themes & Their Emotional ImpactSarah beautifully tackles the most human themes: nostalgia, family, loss, love, and self-discovery. She frequently captures the bittersweet feeling of holding tightly onto fleeting moments of joy, despite - or perhaps because of - their transitory nature. Poems such as "Allow Me Just This One" resonated deeply for me because of its vulnerability. As I continued to read, it was clear that Sarah has a gift for articulating complex feelings with simplicity and grace. It reminded me that we are never alone in our uncertainties or joys. Her Craft & Poetic TechniquesThe collection showcases a rich variety of poetic forms, including free verse, sonnets, prose poems, and even ars poetica. As a reader and writer who appreciates variety, this approach was right up my creative alley. I found myself not only reflecting on her chosen themes, but also pausing to appreciate her experimentation. Sarah often playfully bends and breaks rules to enhance the emotional impact of her poems. Her experimentation with form and white space, evident in pieces like "The Poet's Father Wakes in a Cold Sweat," makes them hit that much harder. I’m sure that reading digitally slightly altered my experience, as the physical format probably enhances Sarah’s thoughtful choices around white space, italics, indentations, and refrains. I’d recommend purchasing the physical copy to fully experience the sensory and emotional intentions of Sarah’s clearly meticulous formatting decisions. The Collection’s Standout Poems & Lines
For me, Part 3 deepens in introspection and emotional revelation, beginning with "Unreliable." I was hooked by the first line, since the poem cleverly invokes the concept of unreliable narrators. As both a reader and writer, the idea of this alone made me curious and inspired. Nevertheless, I continued on. Throughout this section as a whole, Sarah continues to bravely lay bare elements of her life, relationships, and internal dialogues. Part 1 to Part 3 is an emotional evolution, indeed. Final ThoughtsSarah’s voice feels authentic, warm, and engagingly conversational. As a reader, I felt close to her, almost like a companion. I think readers familiar with her will recognize her signature blend of tenderness, wisdom, and humor. Even as she delves into heavier topics, her voice maintains a comforting, approachable quality, making each poem feel personal and genuinely heartfelt. Overall, A Little Daylight Left is a deeply compassionate collection, and one I recommend for anyone who finds beauty in reflecting on their own life journeys. Readers who enjoy poetry that invites contemplation, celebrates vulnerability, and finds wonder in everyday moments will find much to treasure. Those who often find themselves revisiting memories, seeking connections, or examining their evolving identity will particularly resonate with Sarah’s heartfelt explorations. She’s just that good. Truly. As someone who frequently looks to poetry to process and reminisce, I found myself wanting even more of Sarah Kay’s creative and emotional depth—beyond what she's already so generously provided here. It’s a poetry collection worth savoring, sharing, and revisiting. I’m excited to have my own physical copy since it publishes on April 1!
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 Can personality truly change, or are we stuck with the traits we were born with? In Me, But Better, journalist Olga Khazan sets out to answer this question with a bold, year-long experiment on herself. Using the Big Five personality traits—Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN)—as her framework, she explores whether deliberate actions can shift the way we think, behave, and feel. Because don’t we all want to feel better, sometimes? I was immediately drawn to this book after seeing that Gretchen Rubin had reviewed it. As a longtime fan of Gretchen’s work on happiness and habits, I was curious how Olga would approach the subject of personality change. I first discovered Me, But Better on NetGalley, and it arrived in my life at just the right time. As Olga says in her introduction, “Moments stack.” Oh, goodness, how they stack. One after the other like Legos we can’t avoid stepping on forever. Our thoughts, choices, and behaviors compound over time to shape our lives. Like her, I’ve felt the weight of certain aspects of my own personality, and I was excited to see what strategies helped her create meaningful change in her own life. The Science (and Reality) of Personality Change
I’ll say this, above anything else: Olga leans into the discomfort of her experiment. She doesn’t shy away from it - or from sharing her true thoughts - even once. Her hard truth is sometimes palpable on the page, and even as a reader, it was difficult to confront. Even a book can be a mirror, and the best ones are. I can only imagine how she felt, throughout the full experiment, and now, as her book publishes this month on the 11th. How the Experiment DevelopedAfter her introduction, Olga dedicated one chapter to each aspect of OCEAN, but not in the order you might expect. She began with the traits she most wanted to change, and which ranked the poorest on the Big Five Personality test she took directly from researcher Nathan Hudson’s website. Yes, I took the test, and my own results made me even more curious about how Olga approached each of the traits. Trait 1: ExtroversionAs an introvert, Olga began with extroversion. From improv classes to awkward networking events, she examines whether faking extroversion can lead to genuine personality change. She tackled this trait first—headfirst. I admire her tenacity where extroversion is concerned. Her commitment to dive into the deep end, to commit to this lifestyle in the ways that she did, told me just how serious she was about becoming a better version of herself. I was hooked. One of the most striking insights from this chapter is how social interaction can disrupt - even prevent - negative thought spirals. As she said, “Through all of this activity, I found that occasional extroversion can be a tool. It pauses the broken record of the depressive mind: Nothing rescues you from endless rumination like social interaction, even when forced.” Trait 2: NeuroticismOlga describes neuroticism as one of the most difficult traits to change—after all, anxiety and emotional sensitivity are deeply ingrained. She explores various methods to calm an overactive mind, including meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, and mindfulness practices. For every chapter, she speaks with many experts in the field of behavior and habits. She references conversations with Dan Harris and Jon Kabat-Zinn, as well as her own struggles with meditation: “Quieting the mind is impossible at times.” She routinely acknowledges the tension between wanting to change and feeling trapped by long-held emotional patterns. For me, one of the most relatable moments in this chapter is when she describes feeling happy, but immediately fearing that something will go wrong. “I was elated—but for the neurotic, happiness is always tinged with the suspicion that you’ll screw it up somehow.” It’s a relatable fear. And while this chapter did not end in the way I expected it to, the next few were impossible to put down. Traits 3, 4, and 5: Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness
Agreeableness, however, was an area she hoped to work on. She herself noted how she could be angry, blunt, skeptical, and resistant to small talk. But could she become more empathetic and agreeable, still speak up and participate, without feeling like she was smothering or losing herself? In addition to her experiences using Bumble BFF and Meetup, Olga volunteered to serve lunch to the homeless on a weekly basis. More than most, this chapter widened her understanding of what it means to be agreeable. Sometimes, it meant being disagreeable. Her last OCEAN trait chapter covered conscientiousness - a trait she was proud to score highly on initially at the beginning of her year long experiment. As she said, she was finally able to speak from a place of lived experience because she had already increased her conscientiousness years before. In fact, it was her passion for her future that did the trick. I know I appreciated reading through how she changed that part of herself so drastically. It also served as proof that the personality change she hoped to find within herself was one that she had already long accomplished. This sentiment shepherds nicely into her final two chapters. On Knowing When to QuitOne of the most emotionally powerful sections of the book is Olga’s exploration of when to persist and when to walk away. In self-help culture, people are often told that perseverance is key—but sometimes, quitting is the wiser choice. Olga captures that well. This chapter includes an emotional discussion of values versus goals. One I’m personally familiar with and advocate considering for anyone interested. She writes, “Values cast a spotlight on what’s important, and invite you to step in.” This idea - that understanding our core values can guide our decisions - feels like one of the book’s most lasting messages. I knew my own values before reading this book, but they cemented further in my heart. There’s little more that I could ask for out of the second-to-last chapter. Final Chapter, Final Thoughts: How to Keep ChangingIn the final chapter, Find Your Beach, Olga reflects on how to sustain personal growth over time. She emphasizes that personality change isn’t about rejecting who you are, but about expanding your possibilities. Ultimately, Me, But Better is a deeply engaging blend of personality science, self-discovery, and humor. Olga’s writing is sharp and honest, but she goes to great lengths to make psychological research feel accessible and relatable. While the book doesn’t offer a rigid step-by-step guide for change, it provides something even more valuable: a roadmap for experimenting with who we are and who we want to become. It provides hope. If you‘re curious about the psychology of self-improvement, this book is a continual reminder that growth isn’t about becoming someone else - it’s about becoming the best version of ourselves.
 I can hardly believe the end of February is already upon us. While January was a crawl to the finish line, February has been a test of keeping pace. At the end of January, I set aside time to review the month ahead and determine some milestones. With the year passing me by, how will I achieve what I set to - what I wrote about in my first blog?
Anyone who knows me, knows I often set ambitious goals for myself. I tried to dial it down for 2025, but even now, I’m realizing the mountain I have set myself up to climb. For my reading, I’m planning for a solid 50. I also consider other genres in that count, such as essay collections, poetry collections, or even scripts and plays. Beyond that 50, I’m also counting more shorter forms I read - poetry, short stories, shorter essays - because it all ultimately adds up to how I have enjoyed what others have created. I think that’s my favorite part of reading and writing communities: the way they uplift one another. Given my track record for reading, the writing goals I set for myself are the most ambitious ones. In my first blog, I included that I plan to complete and/or post online:
I’m happy to say this is my 6th blog! I haven’t posted that many in a year since… Wow, actually ever. I produced 9 articles about writing in 2016 for Odyssey Online before I became Editor-in-Chief for our local chapter. After that, my time was spent editing and supporting my team of contributing writers so that they posted every week instead. I reposted all of those “Wrong, or Write?” articles to this blog in December 2016, but that hardly counts as this blog when I really look at it. Hindsight is terribly revealing sometimes, isn’t it? The truth is, this style of writing takes less time than the ambitious 4-book romantic fantasy series I have planned, or even the script I partially drafted in 2023 (which I have yet to revisit). Even with designing the posts for my social media accounts, blogging as a whole requires less time and effort. It comes from a more simple place. Me, with my hopes and dreams and passions, just trying to connect once again. Maybe the book and script writing comes from there too - deep down - but it’s muddled by a pressure I subconsciously place on myself. I started publishing when I was 20 years old. Short, little pieces locally before collaborations published internationally. Contests, too. I’m forever grateful for those experiences. I learned about my process, my preferences, and my perspectives on different genres. It would be fair to say that all that has changed, or that I am open to the fact that how I work and what I enjoy isn’t exactly the same as it was more than 5 years ago. This year, I return to my writing like a grown adult returning to a childhood haunt. What’s in front of me is part familiar, part foreign. Engaging in the process again means giving myself over entirely to it. In author and professor Brandon Sanderson’s first recorded lecture as part of his science fiction and fantasy writing course, he asks the question: What makes you consistently do the things you want to have done? I’ve listened to him ask that question probably a dozen times, mulling it over, and it reinforces my desire to attend writing groups and carve out time for writing in my day like I used to. Stolen moments on napkins, scrap pieces of paper, even the Notes app on my phone. In the state of revision I find myself in for my book series, blocks of time are better than chunks, but chunks of time are better than nothing at all. It’s what I have. So I’m working on giving myself the gift of time again. So right now, this is what I have in mind, subject to the natural change and demand of life:
It’s a nice plan. Still, I might toss the script draft out the window entirely in favor of my series. With two jobs and other priorities, it’s hard to say how this plan will unfold. Already, February has been plagued with sickness and ripe with healing. I won’t know what pace makes sense until I begin - until I am in the thick of the process, and in the thick of life - but I’d like to think I’m well on my way. Until next time! |
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