About Tadiwa

A life made your own.

I write about identity, self-authorship, creativity, and the gap between who we appear to be and who we are.

I started looking at my life differently when I wrote a letter to my 45-year-old self.

It made the future feel close enough to question, and the past present enough to understand differently. I began looking in the mirror more—not only at who I was, but at who I was becoming, and who I might be performing for.

I don’t believe we simply find ourselves. I believe we become the people we can envision: through habits, choices, creative acts, and the willingness to question the scripts we have inherited.

I have felt the tension of being labelled. At school, being called a prefect made me a leader of one thing—when I knew I could lead in many ways. Now, whether I am formally in charge or not, I try to lead with intention.

At my run club, we run the first lap together. It is a small ritual, but I see it as a symbol of community: a reminder that we can move forward together before finding our own pace.

A lot of the systems around us, especially social media, encourage us to optimize ourselves into versions that are easier to recognise, admire, or sell. They make borrowed ambition feel like purpose. They make performance feel like authenticity.

This is a space for resisting that.

I write for people who want to be genuine in their identity, creativity, and mindset—for the person caught between what their life is and what it is supposed to be; the person asking, Am I really myself, or am I performing for an unknown audience?

Here, I learn, unlearn, relearn, teach, and show my process. I ask how we can tailor a life around what matters to us, rather than merely progressing through a life designed by someone else.

What is my purpose—and how do I make it my own?

New essays go out weekly on Substack — that’s where the writing lives now.