My Place to Write

I can’t remember a definitive moment in my life where it felt like, “Aha! I want to be a writer.” It was just always there. I was very fortunate in that my mother would always read to me from a very young age, so I developed a love for reading around age four or five and continued to develop the skill whenever I could. From this sprung a great love for writing. My childhood best friend and I even created a series of fictional short stories about an impish bunny rabbit we called Billy Bunny. Anytime something wound up missing or going awry, Billy Bunny was to blame. I don’t remember writing these stories down anywhere, but we created them and told and retold them. Perhaps my clearest memory of understanding that writing could be a career was when I was about ten or eleven. I was a little league cheerleader at the time, and attending the end-of-the-season sports banquet, I met the editor for a local newspaper and asked her for her autograph. I told her I wanted to work with her someday.

However, things changed and time changed. Newspapers are rarely read anymore. Many news sites utilize AI writers to copy content from the Associated Press and simply apply their own political spin or opinionated lens on the original content with the help of AI. In fact, prior to AI, newspapers weren’t all that popular anymore, anyway. Social media has become a favored news source. And, truthfully, it’s probably more reliable than most news sources today. I never envisioned writing hard-hitting articles about crime or war, but much more inviting and warm topics. Things like who won at local spelling bees or what restaurants opened or what fantastic new artist just debuted at the local gallery. I think I was always drawn to this type of community-building content.

As I grew older, I began to really love fashion and the freedom it gave me to express myself. So, it only felt natural to marry these two passions. But, the truth is, I started to get burned out. Not because I no longer enjoyed writing or fashion, but because I was not able to authentically be myself when working for others (and because, far too often, superficiality is favored and I prefer writing with depth). And, when I started my own publication and worked for myself, I always felt a pressure to do more, bigger, better. I lost touch with the girl who simply wanted to share about the good things in the world and bring connection to others.

So, I guess that’s what I’m trying to do here and what my hope is for this blog—to create a space of encouragement. To share about inspiring things. To express my own opinion through writing. No frills. No custom domain, even. Just a tried-and-true blog. I truly hope it encourages you in some way, whether to follow old dreams of your own, get involved with your community, or to regain your spark. Thanks for joining me on this journey.