Doubtful Prisca Showed Up on Day 2. I Told Her to Get Dressed and Step Outside.
Published: January 11, 2026 - 7 min read
I did not think I was going to write about this initially, but here I am giving a week one update of my time in Montreal.
Day 1: The Honeymoon
Day 1 was magic.
I was super happy and excited. I had moved to a new city that looked so beautiful. I had done the thing I promised myself I would do. A lot was going to be new, but even myself, I had this feeling of newness and freshness because I was in a completely new place. Even though I had to do the unpleasant work of unpacking, I was happy.
Day 2: Doubtful Prisca Takes the Mic
On the second day, I woke up in my new place feeling like a total imposter.
My brain started spiraling: Prisca, what have you done? I'm not sure you thought this through thoroughly. What is going to happen next? You don't know anyone here... like no one, at all. This is insane... I knew it. You never should have made the move. What if it doesn't work out? What is your backup plan? You were being too delusional when you signed that lease...
As these thoughts went through my head, the fear grew more and more.
I had to channel that fear towards rapidly and aggressively unpacking my things because I still had a lot of unpacking to do. I was also trying to take some sort of action to calm my fears.
That was when I decided to:
- Create an account on Eventbrite
- Commit to stepping out of the house every single day for the first month
Why every single day?
- So that I do not become a hermit
- To meet people and practice French
- To build a community of friends so that I become less scared and anxious
Stepping Out Changed Everything
It started the next day. I went out and I started meeting people.
Without being too specific about my whereabouts, I attended a range of events:
- Free tours in French at various cultural centers
- Random New Year's parties I found online organized by universities in the area
- Creative team meetups with like-minded people
- Online meetings to learn more about public speaking (because by now, you should know that I am actively working on improving myself in that area, especially if you have met Oprah Winfrey and Tiana Picker)
- French meetups to practice speaking with others who were serious about improving themselves
- A volunteer event by the Volunteer for Smiles group
From the very first day I started to step out and meet people, the fear and anxiety started to dissipate.
The Walk That Made Me Feel Less Alone
At one of the New Year's parties by a college here, I met a good number of amazing people. I met people that I instantly clicked with and had a lot in common with.
I even walked back to the Metro station with 2 of them by my side that night and felt happy. Just happy because I had people by my side and I did not have to walk through the cold, dark night alone.
That night, I remember sending a voice note to my mum about how happy I was to have finally made friends and just going to bed really happy, feeling a lot less alone.
French Is Actually Working
At the French meetup, I saw people who were at a similar level to me but had also improved as a result of attending meetups like this regularly. I felt more hopeful for my future when it comes to speaking French.
But honestly? I have done way better than I expected.
Sure, most of the time I still speak English. But I have been able to hold at least 2 conversations in French, each lasting 10 to 20 minutes, with different people.
That is a biggggg win.
I did not get in my own way by convincing myself in my head that my French was too bad and no one would listen to me. I still have these moments where mid-conversation, I zone out and start to think to myself, Wow, Prisca, you actually understand what he's saying or she's saying.
Of course, the consequence is that in that moment where I am zoned out, I stop listening to what the person is saying. So I should definitely keep that in check. Lol.
The Hospital That Made Me Think
Let me tell you about the volunteer event.
I joined the Volunteer for Smiles group just recently. With a group of 4 others, I made beautiful New Year's Eve cards for people at the hospital, distributed them while singing for patients, and offered them snacks (the ones that were allowed to have them, of course). We were just overall bringing smiles to their faces.
As we visited each patient, we played a future predicting game where we predicted what was going to be in their future between 3 options: Love, Health, and Friendship. Michael, the main organizer, would throw a mint on a plain card separated into sections representing these 3 options and it was so beautiful to see the eyes of patients light up when they hear they have Health in their future, or Friendship, or Love—especially the times when the mint would land halfway between two items and we'd tell them, oh, they have both Health and Friendship in their future.
(You can see photos from this experience here, along with a link to more details about the event.)
Michael, the main organizer of the event, is this really smart guy who works in medical research. He gave me helpful tips on managing my IBS, which I plan to implement soon. It was great to hear a fresh perspective on my situation.
After 5 hours spent at the hospital creating cards and eventually distributing and singing to people, on my train ride home, I thought back to the beautiful smiles on the faces of the different patients as we read out the words in the cards, sang for them, and offered them treats.
It made me feel whole to know that I contributed in my own little way to those smiles.
Then I Asked Myself a Question
Is there any way I can use what I know and am learning about, AI, to help these people? To bring more smiles to their faces?
Right now, the only response I have settled on is this:
I have to aim to make all or most repetitive tasks in my life automated to buy back time. Time that I can use for good acts like this.
Sometimes it is not the direct effect of AI that matters but the ripple effect that comes from using it effectively and efficiently.
The Movement Is More Important Than Ever
Thinking about this made me realize that the movement (aka Religion, lol) I plan to start is more important than ever. Not just for me, but for others as well. To be able to use AI in a manner that frees up their time to do the things that really matter.
Now if you clicked on that link, you probably saw the challenge I gave to myself. And if you want an update: I failed the challenge, okay? You can read about how I failed the challenge here.
But you see, I will not stop giving myself ridiculous challenges like that. I like to work with unreasonable deadlines. I become more creative and my brain becomes more in tune with opportunities or ways to get things done, which ultimately leads to learning, whether or not the challenge succeeds.
What Stepping Outside Showed Me
You know how I have spent more than the past 5 months mostly locked up in my house in front of the computer, learning and experimenting with AI?
Because of my minimal interaction with people in the real world, I made assumptions that most people know how to do what I do. Even on LinkedIn, because of the types of content I engage with, I am now in an echo chamber of so many smart people who know how to do some of what I can do (for some of them with different tools, some that I have never even used).
But here in the real world, with real everyday people?
There is still so much room for how I can help people use AI in ways that make them feel powerful. Because that is simply the feeling that I have because of how much I have used it in different ways.
I essentially feel unstoppable and I want to share that feeling with others.
Not the programmer who already built multiple applications and has been talking to Claude or other LLMs for years. But rather, the average everyday person who may have never even thought about how AI could help them improve as a person and free up their time for more important things in life.
What I Will Become
So once again, the movement I am choosing to start is more important than ever.
By starting the movement:
- I will become the person that gets people using AI in ways that benefit them.
- I will become the person that removes the fear that people have about AI by showing them ways to use it so that it makes them better, not replaces them.
- I will become the person that makes people feel powerful with AI, not powerless and scared.
- I will become the person that helps people unlock the creative geniuses in themselves through the way they use AI.
- I will become the person that helps people understand how AI actually works so that they can make better informed decisions about the manner in which they use it, especially showing them cost-efficient methods tailored to their use cases.
- I will become the person that helps people solve the problems that they do not think or realize they even have.
What Is Stopping Me
So yes, the movement is more important now than ever. And once I decide on a name to call it, I will write more about it.
Yes, the only thing stopping me from making an official blog post is because I have not decided the movement name. But see, I have to take my time. This is big. The name has to be chosen carefully, okay?
Also, let it not be misunderstood that I am the person that knows everything about AI and the best ways to work with it. I am not. In fact, now more than ever, I know that there is so much I do not know.
But what impact can I make with what I already know while continuing to learn daily?
That is the question I have to focus on.
Stay tuned because this is going to be an interesting year.
As always, thanks for reading!