All posts tagged: Blogging

Social Media Sometimes Makes Me Feel Miserable, So I Took a Break

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Back in June I started to notice something every time I logged onto Twitter: it made me feel terrible. I would scroll, I would watch, and I would feel so so lost. But I am a blogger. I am a writer. I am expected to “build my brand” as an online presence. I need a “platform.” I need to be conscious of my accessibility, my persona, and my level of likability. I’m supposed to gain copious followers. I’m supposed to prove my popularity by my retweets, my likes, my finger on the pulse of the youth. There is so much potential with social media. And I’m the first to acknowledge that it’s done wonders for our ability to share, engage, and help move important causes forward (as well as the all-important abundance of cat videos). This year has felt rough though, as far as what is going on in the world. While every year, in the history of years, has it’s collections of tragedies, injustices, disasters, and sadness, I’ve felt the weight of 2016 a little …

You’re Not Alone if You Feel Nervous About Dating

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Something really cool has happened over the past few years. I started this blog in 2013. It began as a place where I could think through pain points I’d had while trying to date as I also dealt with anxiety. One of my mantras when I thought about starting this blog was, “I can’t be the only one.” As you guys have shown me, I’m not. And I have the evidence to prove it. This site is powered via WordPress. There are thousands of people who find my blog via search engines online (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc). For 95% of these searches I’m unable to see the words people typed in that led them to this site. But for the other 5% I can see what someone searched for. There are no other identifying factors for the search terms, so there’s no way to know the person’s age, gender, hometown, etc. Yet this anonymity makes me feel all the more connected.  And it’s one of the coolest things. In 2016 so far here’s a sampling …

Just Breathe.

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“It’s sad, I don’t want to,” I said, turning away from his outreached laptop. “Just watch it, it’s cute!” “I already know what happens. He loses his candy and can’t find it. Sad.” As Jared tried to get me to watch the latest viral animal video, the one of a raccoon who loses his candy (or so I inferred from the tweets and facebook posts I’d seen about it), I kept refusing. I already know what happens. The adorable creature loses his candy. He’s confused. It’s a metaphor for all of humanity. The truth is, I’ve been feeling more raw lately. A little more sensitive than usual. A little less tough. I don’t think I could handle this raccoon. I’m not sure if it’s the recent holiday season, the scrappy nature of my current career, or the fact that our wedding is less than two months away (*screams internally*) but I’ve felt a little bit like a porcupine on its back: vulnerable. I’ve struggled with blogging about being engaged and planning our wedding, since the last thing …

2015: The Year of Facing Fears

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If you’re anything like me you’ve recently found yourself turning to your coworker and asking “how is it already December!?” and by coworker I mean cat and by asking I mean shouting. But seriously, how is this year coming to a close already? The end of the year always makes me anxious because I feel like I’m “running out of time” to “do everything I wanted to do this year.” This is silly because it’s not like time comes to a screeching halt after December 31st (unless there’s something you’re not telling us ANCIENT MAYANS). A few years back a friend of mine explained that she doesn’t list New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of a year. Instead, she assigns a theme to her year. For example, she might have dubbed 2013 “The Year of Intention” or maybe 2010 was “The Year of Patience.” I dug this so hardcore because a) as a student of literature I’m ALL ABOUT themes, b) I like the idea of not having the pressure of a written list and c) I’m sorta lazy and …

When What You’re Creating Doesn’t Look How You Want

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“I can see it up here!” she said, tapping the side of her head, “but then when I try to draw it, it looks ridiculous.” It was a summer weekend a few months back and I was playing a game with my fiancé and future in-laws. His mom was lamenting over her inability to draw a picture clearly. The game, Telestrations, is a combination of telephone and pictionary and triggers some of the best laughter I’ve encountered in years. It requires players to draw pictures quickly, which means eventually you’re going to look down and go wait WHAT was I trying to draw? It might even make you want to flip the table over and walk away. This week I’ve been working on designing and creating invitations for Jared and mine’s upcoming wedding. Earlier in the year we made DIY save the dates. It went like this: we found a design we liked, got our supplies, and made them. And even though it took a lot of time and we hit a few bumps, we loved how …