i am not mysterious

In partnership with

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in!💌

scroll to the end for my daily roundup on unique opportunities!

onto today’s topic: i am not mysterious 😇 

you will never catch me being the person that looks around a crowded room trying to feign an air of nonchalance. i am chalant. extremely so.

i’m the type of person that will send over a random internship link or tiktok if it reminds of the singular interaction we’ve ever had — i don’t really care much for waiting to unlock different social levels of closeness, and people misinterpret the intention behind that sometimes. i just love having conversations and welcoming the opportunity to laugh together. 🤷‍♀️ 

there’s more to lose when you restrict yourself than the possibility of “weirding someone out.”

of course i’m not mysterious, i literally write a public diary every day. 😭 i have a genuine appreciation for people that are relentlessly themselves and unafraid of the ridiculous social norms that are always forced down our throats.

dare to make a fool out of yourself and “lose aura.” being human is charming.

one of my big goals for 2025 is to step outside of my comfort zone every single day, and my recent method for achieving that is striking up conversation with complete strangers. my friend, sahil, and i have been recently challenging each other to approach people in public with corny lines, and it has been such a blast. we call it “polar bearing” people because the line goes something like:

“do you know how much a polar bear weighs?”
“no…?”
“enough to break the ice. hi, my name is harsehaj.” *go in for handshake*

it’s so stupid, but such a fun way to genuinely break the ice. 🧊 

mysterious people don’t make human connections. the vulnerable ones do, and being yourself is nowadays equivalent to being vulnerable.

on that note, i realized last night that there are actually a decent number of unc readers here — if you’re at unc, say hi & let’s chat some time. 😁 

daily opportunity + resource drops 🔍️