Hey Family & Friends,
I just wanted to take a few minutes out of my day to say THANK YOU for supporting me.
Thank you for reading my blog posts, liking, commenting, and sharing.
I have been thinking about it, and I realized that when I launched my blog I never really explained why or what I hoped to accomplish. I hope to do that today with this post.
When I was in kindergarten, my mom read The Secret Garden to me. Looking back, I think that was one of the single most influential moments in my life. (Never underestimate the power of reading to young children.)
I loved those afternoons where we would sit together on my bed…my mom reading, me creating pictures of the story in my head, and me desperately wishing that I could unlock the magic of the words on the page myself.
I became obsessed with learning how to read. I had this little pink cassette player/radio (it was the 90s after all), and I had these Disney books and the tapes to go with them. I would lay on the floor forever playing those tapes with the books in front of me, following along, and learning how to make sense of the words on the page.
By the second grade, I was reading The Little House on the Prairie book series. My second-grade teacher was not impressed. I loved her (as most elementary kids love their teacher). I was proud of myself for reading those books, and I tried to share that with her. I hypothesize that she told my mom I was faking and that I wasn’t really understanding the books. I thought this might be the case because after parent-teacher conferences, my mom had me sit down and read to her. I remember being so nervous because I was afraid my mom might take the books away and make me read stupid baby books if I didn’t read well enough.
As a teacher now, I get where my 2nd grade teacher was coming from. But did she take the time to sit and read with me to see for herself? Did she show any interest or enthusiasm for my reading level? No.
She had her favorites, and I wasn’t one of them. That hurt.
I read to my mom, and I got to keep my books. When I would go up north to see my cousins Harley and Cassandra, we would play Little House on the Prairie on my grandma’s porch. Our (my) favorite scene to act out was when Mary got scarlet fever and went blind.
Recently, we were cleaning out some old files, and I came across papers from the 3rd grade. Inside the folder was a sample story that I wrote. It was clearly based on The Secret Garden. Three years after my mom read that book to me, I was still thinking about it. Clearly, it had a big impact.
Ever since I learned how to read, I knew that I wanted to be an author. I wanted to write my own stories and create my own magic.
I was a little perfectionist even back then though. I got this American Girl doll that you could create (you pick the hair and the eye color). I named her Becky, and she came with a set of books so that you could write her story. That was the main reason I had wanted her really. I wanted to write stories in those books.
Do you think I ever wrote in them?
No.
Because I wasn’t ready. Because I had more to learn. Because I told myself that I had to map out my stories first. Because I thought they wouldn’t be good enough. Because I wasn’t really a writer yet. So rather than fill up those pages with my stories that might be disappointing and reveal that I wasn’t cut out to be a writer, I just never filled them out at all. They’re sitting in a box in the basement, blank, with my doll.
I was still obsessed with becoming a writer though. In the 7th grade, I wanted to start a school newspaper. That didn’t pan out, but I started a family newsletter instead. I wrote The Family Free Press every month and sent it out.
It’s funny because I never actually considered myself to be a writer. I wrote things, but I was not a writer.
Even now. People will compliment me on my writing, and I don’t believe them.
I see other people writing, and I think, “She’s a writer!” But I don’t think that about myself.
I got some compliments on how my Chris Evans post was fun to read, so I went and read the post again. I cringed, and I thought, “UGH. It’s not that funny, and it’s not that good.”
Again, the perfectionist in me reared her ugly head. There’s that “I’m not good enough” story again.
I’m currently working on changing that limiting belief and mindset right now. However, the work never ends.
The point here is that I realize I haven’t been super clear with you guys on why I started this blog or what I hope to achieve. I never really put my goal out there. That’s a perfectionist thing to do too.
Either we set too many (vague) goals so that when we don’t achieve one, we have a valid excuse. “Oh, well I was so busy with ___________ that I didn’t have enough time to properly do _____________.”
Or we don’t ever set a clear goal at all. If you don’t have a clearly defined goal, then you never have to go all in. If you never go all in, then you never have to face the disappointment and failure of not reaching that goal.
I want to write. I have a lot to say about life, love, travel…all of it. I have always been better at expressing myself through writing than through talking, and I think I can help people.
Writing also helps me figure out and make sense of exactly what it is that I am thinking.
My goal is to turn writing into my full-time job.
I want to turn travel and travel writing into my full-time job. I want to share what I’m learning about life (my struggle) in order to help others live their best lives possible too.
I want to create magic and leave behind something important, enduring, and impactful.
So, thank you again for being here. For reading. For sharing. For liking. For commenting. For pinning.
It truly helps and makes such a big difference.
Without you all, I wouldn’t be seen or heard.
When you post to social media, the algorithm only shows your post to a small portion of your audience first. If those people like and comment on the post in a timely manner, then Facebook/Instagram/etc will see your post as valuable content and they will push it out to more people. If you don’t get that initial reaction by the small group of people who see the post first, then it gets buried and lost in the feed.
Every like, every comment, every share TRULY does help. Thank you for helping me and supporting my dream of doing this full-time.
I have some exciting posts planned for the blog soon! I appreciate your feedback. If there are any topics you’d like me to explore more, I would love to hear from you!
If this is your first time on my blog and/or if you don’t know me that well, you can head over to my About page to learn a little more 🙂
xoxo Alyssa
P.S. Signing up for my email list helps too!
(Confession: I haven’t actually sent out an email to my subscribers yet. My goal is to change that this week.)
