I’m back again! 🕺
2026
3/20/20263 min read
It’s been a while, but now I feel like the time is ripe for me to start writing this newsletter again!
I come to you bearing some very happy news: It's now looking certain I’ll be able to stay in Paris for the time being. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 (This piece of news indeed deserves at least five celebratory emojis.😜)
I’ve now found a job that lets me stay here, so all that’s left to do is to find an apartment. (I know getting an apartment in Paris is always a major feat, but I still reckon it’ll feel easier than getting a job.😆)
It feels rather monumental to say I’ve got a job, because getting to this point has been far from smooth sailing…
I moved back to Paris at the start of August 2025, and if I’m being honest, these last seven months have been some of the hardest I've experienced yet.
Let’s say that on the surface level I’ve been fine, and I very much enjoyed being part of some exciting projects during my internship at the Institut finlandais last fall. But on a deeper level, I’ve had to process emotionally some relational issues, and mostly, I’ve struggled with overexerting myself and feeling generally misaligned—not to mention my old companion: perfectionism.
The misalignment part is a particularly interesting one. The feeling of misalignment is most often the direct consequence of not trusting your gut feeling enough when making decisions.
In my case, I made a career choice last year that seemed logical but actually felt like too much of a mismatch with who I really am and who I want to become. In other words, the choice would’ve been ideal for a previous version of my identity, but it didn’t correspond with my current one.
I do know a perfect job doesn’t exist and that there are always compromises to be made when picking a job, but still, some jobs require you to make unreasonable compromises.
And I’m not talking about compromising something as fundamental as your ethics for example. I’m talking about the more ambiguous compromises that affect how you use your skills and which aspirations you get to fulfill.
That’s where your gut feeling comes in. Your gut feeling is usually pretty good at gauging which option could make you compromise too much and signaling which option you honestly prefer.
But as we know, it’s very hard to listen to your gut when it matters most. In consequence, when you neglect it, it leads to living quite a perplexing existence. An existence where everything seems fine objectively speaking, and you’re grateful that everything is fine on the surface level, but you’re far from thriving internally.
It feels like masquerading a life you don’t want, and if it doesn’t zap your energy completely, it at least erodes your energy slowly but surely. It's a form of lying to yourself — or worse, self-sabotage. You have to live with the fact that you picked an option you know deep down takes you too far away from an aligned existence.
Fortunately, now things are starting to feel aligned again for me.
And of course, this period of misalignment has taught me a fair share of important lessons I will reflect on during the next (hopefully more aligned) period of my life.
At the end of the day, this life consists of highs and lows. And regardless of how many of those lows are self-inflicted or forced upon you, it’s a fact that the highs wouldn’t feel as high without the occasional lows.
Only time will tell if this next period of my life will resemble more of a high.
No matter the case, I hope you’ll come with me for the ride. 😉
As a first step, I’ll throw these questions back at you:
What is your gut telling you right now—about anything, big or small?
What's stopping you from listening to it?
And if you did listen: what's the worst that could actually happen?
Would it still matter in a week? In ten years?
So with that, I wish you a very elegant week!
Bisous,
Elle