Hello, you.
How It Started
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”
I believe words carry a certain kind of magic. It takes a few good (or bad) ones, piled after the other, to spark a change, because where our hands fall short of reaching, our words do not. To lend a hand and share the company of a friend—this is why I write.
When I was about 8 or 9, I saw a tiny woman slap another woman forcefully with a rolled-up newspaper, and I said to myself, “That. I want to be like that.” It was my eureka moment. I just didn’t know it yet.
“Maybe I’ll help a hundred young women, maybe a hundred thousand, or maybe just one.”
Ten years later, Edna Mode’s pep talk to Elastigirl still exudes the energy I want to inject into women, one way or another.
I’ve always found a sense of joy in helping people, in taking the time to listen to their stories, and in giving advice when needed (or throw stationery at their faces if the situation ever calls for such drastic measures). I guess you could say this is [mostly] what my work is about.
“The problem, I’ve found, is our indifference to the cause of lifting each other up.”
The idea that I can be there for people and offer them something hopeful or helpful but at the same time gentle without the unnecessary sugarcoating and true without being cruel or indifferent profoundly speaks to me. Because the problem, I’ve found, is our indifference to the cause of lifting each other up. I started this blog to reach out to people, young women especially, about the pain and joy of being alive.
I take what I’ve learned from life and turn it into chunks of sound advice and important lessons. Let’s face it, life isn’t always going to be smooth sailing. At some point, you’ll find yourself barely reaching the surface for air. When you find yourself in a low place, I hope this serves as a reminder that we can always try again. Give it your best even if your best won’t always look the same. Growth is simply the act of diligently bettering yourself in a way that challenges the person you were yesterday.
Maybe I’ll help a hundred young women, maybe a hundred thousand, or maybe just one. Who knows?
Hobbies and Then Some
I like to spend my time outside of work reading or participating in any artistic endeavor, even if I totally suck at it. Art, in its essence, is a language—a form of expression. You can’t really put a metric on a person’s soul. So if you’re like me, a lover of the arts without the technical skills to match, remember this: Keep at it and don’t be afraid of your ugly art.
Books are another thing. And the Good Book AKA the Bible sits at the height of it all. I owe much of who I am and what I’ve learned to books. One of my favorite reads is Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.
It taught me a lot of things. One which I keep close to heart is this—“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
I planted this seed of an idea to start a blog in my dorm room. When I was 19, the website went live. My experiences are quite young, but here’s something important that everyone of all ages and walks of life should know. Going after our goals and not going after our goals will always cost us something. We have to decide which dues we’re willing to pay.
I know not all of us can afford to fail big, but I hope you always choose to fail forward. The story I share with you today is not one of grandiose gestures and dramatic intervals of ups and downs (not yet, at least, my story’s still being written).
It’s one person learning and going through life, serving the best of her God-given gifts, and reaching out to someone else along the way.
It isn’t perfection. It isn’t that I’ll always have the answers and that you’ll like them every time. Only this—to show up and do the work of bringing growth and meaningful change closer to you. I’ll be there on the good days and the bad days all the same.
We learn as we go, and honestly, I’ve got a whole lot of learning ahead of me. I don’t have everything figured out either. I guess that makes you, me, and the majority of the human race. And that’s okay.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. Here’s to the humanness of growth and the commitment to be better than the person we were yesterday. Sawubona, dear reader.
Now that you know there’s no wizard behind the curtain, I hope you’ll stick around. Join the club. We’ll have a potluck.
Stay In The Loop.
If we’re not connected on Instagram yet, come and say hi. Or ask me a question. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Oh, and don’t forget to download this helpful (and did I mention free) guide for laying down the structure of what you actually find meaningful. Plan out your day, evaluate, and keep moving forward.
