What's To Come 🔮

Survey results, upcoming posts, and more...

Sup! I missed you guys. The survey results are in, and I’ve got some updates for y’all. Thank you to those of you who filled out survey: your feedback is super valuable!!! Know that if you volunteered to work with me in the future, I’ll be reaching out to you soon! 🤠

With that, here are some of the things you can expect from this newsletter in the coming weeks:

• Same schedule! 🗓 You’ll keep getting an email every other week on Mondays. Expect them to come around 12pm EST. Posts will alternate between personal essays (same as usual, albeit hopefully more ~polished~) and guest posts (more on that below)!

• (Slightly) longer-form essays! 📝 Looks like for the most part, the most meaningful posts are ones involving either cultural commentary or a focused personal anecdote. Next week, I’ll have a post about growing up with Tamil music, forgetting about it as I dabble in sections of the American mainstream, and then come back to my roots as I decide what my tastes really are.

• More guest posts! 👯‍♀️ With glee, I have a bunch of people lined up to work with on guest posts. What that will look like might depend! Q&As, newsletter swaps, interviews, and more. Coming up at the end of this month, I’ll have Aparna Sridaran on to write with me about expectations for friendships in the digital age.
  
  If you’re interested in working with me on a guest post of some sort, leave a comment or reply to this email! I’ll be in touch with you and we can work something out.

• Graphics! Aesthetics! Production value! ✨ I’m working with a friend of mine to upgrade some of the graphics here. I’m talking about adding a banner, little paragraph break images, pretty line dividers, etc.

• Donations! 💸 This will take a little time to develop, but it looks like some of y’all are willing to pitch in a little bit to support this newsletter. Which is fantastic—I can’t tell you how much that means! In the coming weeks, I’ll set up a Patreon for people to optionally donate a small amount for this newsletter.¹

• Advice Column! 🧐 I’ve gotta say I’m happy to hear this. Here’s another survey you can fill out about any questions you have that you want me to answer. The schedule for this is pending, but I’ll have updates. And serious questions only! Don’t ask me “what do I do if my toilet is clogged?” and I promise to be as earnest and kind and helpful as possible. ❤️

Alright y’all, that’s gonna be it for this week. I’m excited for next week! I’ve got an essay cooking that I’m pumped to share. Till then, check out these guys to satisfy your hunger:

• Maybe Baby, by Haley Nahman

• Low Lift Ask, by Ritam and Nabeel

• Not A Writers Club, by Celeste Scott

• Noticements, by Denise Robbins

• Butter, by Alex Bell

• Turtle’s Pace, by Justin Andersun

✌🏼 ✌🏼 ✌🏼 ✌🏼 ✌🏼 Till next week ✌🏼 ✌🏼 ✌🏼 ✌🏼 ✌🏼

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Only Child is a bi-weekly newsletter where I find excitement in the mundane. Tell your friends and enemies to subscribe!

—Chuckry Vengadam (@churrthing)

1. Substack is great in that it supports payments, but the minimum is $5, which is a little too pricy for what I’m doing right now.