How old are your kids?

The last blog I wrote was about K-pop.

Since then... life has happened! SO MUCH LIFE!

The toddler turned 2 and who knew 2 year olds were this fast and strong! My eldest started Primary 1. I braved solo parenting for a good chunk of the first half of the year because my husband was traveling so frequently. I was elected to be class rep for my son's class and helping everyone navigate the new unknown of the public school system. Was informed I would be out of a job after 5+ years due to company restructuring. Desperately job hunting for months. Started a new job after wrapping up at the old one. Both kids started daycare after almost 7 years of me fighting to make it all work.

Last week, I was somewhere between saying goodbye and trying to remember my new logins at my new job.

It's been a lot. But somewhere in all of this, I've realised something about myself.

I really, really like people.

Not in the "I'm an extrovert and love parties" kind of way because I'm actually quite the opposite.

I love going home. I need quiet. I disappear when my emotional battery dies. In fact, if you've ever thought I was being aloof, chances are I was just.. buffering.

But when I am with people, something strange happens. See, I don't always remember every little detail of everyone's lives. In fact, I wish I did. Most of the time, I would forget someone's name almost as soon as they say it out loud.

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But I've noticed my conversations have a habit of going from zero to hero in record time.

We could have literally just met. We could be on a Teams call discussing project handovers, timelines and spreadsheets.

Fifteen minutes later, I've somehow found out what you studied in college, how many siblings you have, whether your kids are keeping you awake at night, and maybe even why your neighbour's cat keeps scratching your car.

How?

I genuinely don't know. One minute we're talking about marketing assets. The next, someone is telling me how their previous company continued using their photo on the corporate website years after they'd left... except they had cropped half of his face off.

True story! As told by a very respectable older Japanese gentleman.

I have absolutely no idea how we got there.

People just tell me things.

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A few days ago, someone gave me a piece of advice before I started my new job. "Don't get too chummy. Remember this is corporate. Just keep things professional."

Honestly? It's good advice! I'm new. I've yet to learn the culture, earn trust. I can't assume everyone wants to be friends, and/or are my ally.

I get it.

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Then Tuesday happened.

I was discussing some content with a new colleague. We'd messaged each other maybe 3-4 times prior? We did get on a call one evening. The conversation started because I asked how long she'd been with the company. When she mentioned that she had taken 4 years off for mummy duties, we naturally went off tangent into talking about kids, and she added that she'd heard my toddler in the background during our very brief call few days before.

Then she said something that completely caught me off guard.

"I thought... Sarah is my mom friend."

A few messages later she added,

"We are mom friends already."

I laughed.

Then, for reasons I still can't explain, I got a little emotional. Not because we'd known each other for years. Quite the opposite. We'd only just met.

Yet somehow she'd already decided I was safe enough to call a friend.

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Later in the conversation she said,

"Your boss found a very nice person."

My immediate response? Deflect the compliment and move the conversation along. But she continued, "I have to thank her."

We've barely worked together, I've only been here a couple weeks, so it was quite impossible that she was complimenting my work. I suppose she was talking about something else.

And I think that's what stayed with me.

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I've spent years thinking my passion was writing. But lately, I'm beginning to wonder if writing is just the vehicle.

Because what I actually love is people.

Stories have always been the excuse. They're how I connect. How I understand life. How strangers become colleagues. How colleagues become friends. How a serious handover meeting somehow turns into a conversation about your university days, your kids, your hobbies, and the mystery of your neighbour's cat.

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Looking back, this has been happening for years.

I somehow become the class rep. I start WhatsApp groups. I ask people how their weekend was and accidentally end up hearing their entire life story. But I don't think I do anything particularly special. I just think people are interesting.

Everyone has a story.

And if you ask one more question...

Sometimes they'll tell it.

Maybe that's what I want Re-Wording to become. Not just a place about writing, or communication, or marketing.

Those things matter.

But underneath all of them is something I've always cared about without really having the words for it -- building community.

Not the buzzword. The real kind. The kind that happens quietly. One conversation at a time. Every story.

Because maybe belonging isn't something we build through grand gestures. Maybe it starts with genuine curiosity, with listening, with making someone feel seen, and every now and then...

Someone you've only just met says, "We're mom friends already."

And somehow, that feels like coming home.