#94 New Year, fresh start
Hello friend,
New year, new adventures! 🇮🇹 Welcome to my newsletter, where I will be sharing stories from everyday life in Sicily and the occasional insider tips on exploring Italy like never before. If you're a travel enthusiast looking to discover the hidden gems of this beautiful country, then you've come to the right place!
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By supporting my content, you'll be helping me to continue to bring you the best of Italy.
So why wait? Grab a subscription, and let's make 2024 the year of experiencing Italy like a true local. We can't wait to see where the new year takes us!
This enthusiastic start to the newsletter was given to me through a new app I recently downloaded, which uses prompts from me to generate content with AI.
Looking at it as it is, it isn't that bad. It's a little too positive, a few grammatical things to polish and a bit cliche for my liking, but it's a good start for my first newsletter of 2024.
While I don't mind the idea of these kinds of apps, they are great tools in helping generate ideas; often, when we don't know where to begin, these kinds of programs give us a place to start. And I don't know where I'd be without my spell check.
But I think it is essential that we don't lose any skills or gifts we already have to AI. The idea of robots taking over the world in the future is very far-fetched.
But instead, the concern that AI will take over things we used to have to do for ourselves is alarming. I'm not too fond of the idea that people are already starting to lose their knowledge because all the information is now at our fingertips.
It is alarming to think people won't take the time to learn how to read, write or reason by themselves. Even the simple concept of making things with our hands or imagination seems something that should be fundamentally a human skill.
AI should be a tool we all can use to teach us to be better writers, readers, thinkers, builders, architects, and engineers. It is not a substitute for developing our knowledge or skills.
What do you think about AI?
As I slowly lean into the new year, I wanted to thank you for your subscription. I'm happy to report I sent out a special package to all of my new subscribers before Christmas; my gift to you for your support and faith in A load off my mind.
This year, I'll continue the excerpts from my travel memoir Sicilian Descent. Once they have been completed, I plan to start an exclusive podcast for subscribers, where I will send you a recording from me in Sicily. I can't wait to get back in front of a microphone; it's been a while.
I hope you had a great festive season, and remember, the New Year is always a fresh start.
To new beginnings.
Warmest wishes
Rochelle
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About me
My name is Rochelle Del Borrello (@rochelledelborrello), and I'm a writer based in Sicily, Italy. Over the past decade, I've been writing about Sicily online, as a travel writer and on my blog.
I started 'A Load off my Mind' to share more of my writing, thoughts, and discoveries directly and regularly with you. My newsletter is a way of sharing what is happening in my creative life in Sicily—part slice of life, part travel memoir and with my philosophical yet honest point of view.
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