this image of jenna lyons’ office, particularly her inspiration board, feels a lot like my life. and no, i’m not glorifying being busy. but i am busy (yea, i said it.) i have a full time job that has truly been full time. i am a wife. i am a daughter and a sister to parents and a brother who are on the other coast. i’m a friend to people i care about that live all over the country (and now in other parts of the world). finally, i’m trying to carve out my own little place in the universe, and part of that is this blog.
back when i started this blog and back when blogs were blogs and not lifestyle destinations or style hubs, i never envisioned that it would be all about me. it began with me writing. badly, yes, but writing about fashion, style, advertising, magazines, marketing, and occasionally i would throw in a personal essay. then the blog world began to shift; personal style was the new news and some bloggers were starting to make money from this new hobby. i challenged myself to post more often (at least 4 times a week) and to include more of these kinds of posts. and what happened? my readership grew, i received more press and features, and i was approached by brands. it felt nice (obviously) to have these opportunities, but at times it can bring more pressure. what’s the end game? you go to conferences and “experts” tell you about qutting your job to blog full-time or you meet other bloggers and they ask you, ‘so what are you hoping to achieve with it?’ uh, i don’t know. i admire those that can blog full time, but that’s just not me. my passions run too far and (at times) too wide. i’m lucky to already have a job i love, and to be honest, having the blog has helped me in that job and will probably help me when i’m ready to move on to the next. but long term? i can barely think about next month let alone next year.
so what am i trying to say? that i want to get back to what i used to love about this space, and doing and writing about what i love. outfit posts will still be part of the mix, but so will more writing and features with cool people doing cool things. i’ll still do partnerships, when it feels right. some call it slow blogging. i call it doing what i damn well please. and not worrying about success, whatever that means. maybe it’s part of growing up. maybe i realized i was pushing myself in a direction i didn’t want to move in. i’m not sure. what i do know is that i still love this space, i’m still evolving it, and i want it to be about my passions, just not all about me.
two posts that have resonated with me recently: this one by victoria and this one by felicia (particularly the bit about playing small)…
image via fast company; quote design by kim mitchell stokes
