Tomorrow Is Sunny ☀️

☀️Certain experiences divide our lives into 'before' and 'after'. Describe an experience that had left a significant impression on you or has influenced you considerably. How has this experience affected you? Do you look at it differently now than you did at first? Reflect on how it fits a larger image of your life and whether it has changes your values. 

☀️Describe an important step you took or a difficult decision that you made. Why was it difficult/important? How have your values and principles influenced the decision? And did the decision influence your values and principles? 

☀️Compare your life to an object (a puzzle, a roller coaster, a clock, glass, coffee or anything you like) and describe how they are connected. Metaphors are welcome. 

☀️Talk about an interesting and/or unique side of yourself that most people may not know about but you think is valuable to you. Why do you think it is valuable?

☀️Imagine the world and yourself 30 years from now. How have you changed? Describe how you fit into that new world. Compare your present self and future self. Do not forget to focus more on yourself and your growth. 

☀️If you were able to do absolutely anything right now, what would it be? It could be reaching the highest point on Earth, meeting someone you admire, or creating some crazy piece of art. Anything. Why do you want to do that? Do you think you will be able to do that in the future for real? 

☀️If you could solve one problem in the world, what would it be? Why is it important to you? 

☀️Is there anything you have/haven't done that you regret now? If you could revert everything, how would you act? Why? Can you do anything about it now?

☀️Any other prompt of your own design which would help others to understand you better

Remember that this story is here to reveal something important about you or your life. So, please be reflective and take your time.

“What kind of story should I write?”

☀️Short answer: any story that reflects who you are and what you care about.

The book is there to show the youth of Uzbekistan as we are, so use this opportunity to write something valuable about you.

Be: Honest. Authentic. Reflective.

☀️Longer answer: when you fill in the Google form, on the second page you will find a story where you get lost in a forest and meet an old man whom you decide to tell your story to. The purpose is to create an atmosphere that will help you be more comfortable and open sharing your life story.

At the end, there is a list of prompts to guide you and give you some ideas. I will share them here too👇

I’m Nodira. 17 years old. And I love stories. My first ever book was written when I was 6 years old - six A4 sheets folded and sewn together, with illustrations and clear guidance on how to be the best cat owner.

I wrote poems in elementary school about my cats and grandmother, so my homeroom teacher in 2nd grade used to call me “Little Zulfiya”. Well, now I have been nominated to Zulfiya award.

Of course, it was not like I knew writing was my passion since the beginning. For a long time, I have been wandering around and trying myself in different areas: during high school I run my own online shop for 2 years, before that I was into knitting, drawing and also designing. I dropped those hobbies one after another (tho business is still attractive) while my classmates seemed to already know what exactly they wanted to do in their lives.

My Mom calls me “Sunny” since my very childhood. My Dad’s words that one should only force a little smile to feel better as it works both ways still define how I look at the world. Tomorrow is Sunny sounds to me like a promise that everything will be alright.

I always loved reading (Dad used to make challenges like a book for 3 days when I was in middle school) but it wasn’t until I started learning English that I got fully immersed in that world. I was lucky enough to have a great teacher who would recommend me a book a week and discuss them with me afterwards. I owe him a lot. And I also got IELTS 8.0 at the end.

October this year I finally published my first book - Behind the Geniuses of Literature: Stories of Women Whom You Probably Didn’t Know. It’s available on Amazon and I am planning to publish it here in Uzbekistan too. (We brought several copies to the American Corner Namangan and it feels amazing to touch one’s own book😂)

And yes. I write in English. Why? If I am to commit myself to writing, and writing about Uzbek life, then I want it to be on a much larger scale - I want people from around the world to know about my country and our values.
Hence the book, 101 Teenagers of Uzbekistan:)

Reflecting the youth of Uzbekistan as we are…

If you tell anyone abroad that you are from Uzbekistan, the most common reply you will receive is “Pakistan?” Or, “Afghanistan?”
Some people might know the word Uzbekistan itself but very likely they will have no clue what it is. Our culture. Our values. Us.
In order to learn about Uzbek life and immerse into it, one has to read books either in Uzbek or Russian - which puts restrictions on many. We have great books in Uzbek (O’tgan kunlar, Shum bola) that give a glimpse into what it is to be an Uzbek. But once again, many people abroad cannot read those books.

Which moves us to the next point. What writing in English does is that it allows you to reach a wider audience, helping people of other nations and languages sympathize with you. Language can be a barrier but also a bridge.

Why do we need “101 Teenagers of Uzbekistan”? It will, I hope, be an opportunity to show if not the whole population of Uzbekistan, then at least the young ones, teenagers of our nation. Who we are. What we care about. What our stories are like. We all have our own stories to tell.

And I hope that you too will be part of that book.