I write from the middle of things, where memory lingers like dust in corners, and healing is still in progress.
Unfinished Rooms is the space I return to—the emotional architecture of my life, half-built and still echoing.
Here, I gather the fragments. The grief. The laughter. The silence.
Here, I write lived stories.
Always raw. Sometimes tender. Never complete.
And other times, when it’s too much to feel, I escape into stories I make up.
Stories that echo my truth, even when they aren’t real.
This blog is me, making a home inside the mess.
Rebuilding, one unfinished room at a time.
Welcome to the fragments. The echoes. The becoming.
About the Writer:
Shantey Moabelo
I started writing the first time I moved away from home, to a new city, for varsity. It was my first authentic taste of freedom. I thought I had left the fragments behind, but they followed me. Etched into memory. Packed into my luggage. Imprinted onto my skin.
The things I carried were heavy, but I didn’t know how to speak about them. I had never been taught. In our house, pain had no language. It was a silent communication. So I remained quiet, unable to name the sadness, the depression, the anger, the resentment.
It was a random night, long after everyone else had retired to their beds, that I found myself compelled to write.
And then I kept writing.
Initially, my writing was not about healing. It was a survival strategy, a way to navigate the inner turmoil. But with each word I penned, a transformation began. The act of writing, I discovered, had the power to heal.
I was starting to find a voice, the one that had been muted for so long.
Still Living in That House
On Fragments
Welcome to Unfinished Rooms, a space where I write from the in-between, where the walls are not yet fully formed and the stories are still woven. It’s a metaphor for the unfinished aspects of my life, the memories and experiences that have yet to find their place in a complete narrative.
I didn’t always have the word for it—what I was carrying.
It started with scattered and unfinished memories: a Coke bottle used as a walking aid, a whispered name made up on the spot, the dust in a half-built house, and the silence after someone said, “It’s okay if you die.”
None of it came in complete stories. Just flashes. Moments. Feelings.
As I began writing Unfinished Rooms, a collection of my fragmented memories and experiences, I discovered the transformative power of writing. It’s a tool that allowed me to turn fragments into a cohesive whole.
These are not just memories, but pieces of myself that got stuck in certain moments, frozen in time. Some beautiful. Some are too heavy to touch without trembling. These fragments are not just memories; they are the essence of my being, the parts of me that I’ve left behind in the past.
Calling them fragments gave them form and permitted me to hold them without forcing them to become something whole before they were ready.
That’s how we got here—me and these pieces of memory.
Not building a polished narrative. But slowly gathering what was left behind, and naming each fragment.
So I can finally live outside of them.
Thank you for walking with me on this journey.
With Tenderness,
Shantey
Where to Begin
You can begin by exploring The House, a collection of my lived stories. These are the fragments of memory I’ve carried for years, the grief, the joy, the silence, the breaking, and the becoming. Here, I write from real rooms I’ve walked through. Some are still haunted. Some are slowly healing. These stories are raw, sometimes heavy, always true.
Or, if you need to escape, like I often do, you can slip into Quiet Inventions. These are my soft creations, imagined stories that echo truth even when they aren’t real. They are the gentle what-ifs, the might-have-beens, the quiet places I build when reality feels too loud.
Read what you need.
Linger where you feel seen.
And if all you do is sit with a sentence for a moment, that’s enough. Your journey with my words is yours to navigate. Take your time, linger where you feel seen, and know that your presence here is deeply appreciated.
Unfinished Rooms 