Changes, Like Whoa

Hello friends. It's been a while. Ever see blog posts like this where people say that they haven't blogged in forever and that they promise to blog again and then you look at the date and it was from 2016 or something like that?

Well, I *hope* this isn't going to be one of those posts. I do feel like my blog has been neglected. I still post my It's Monday! What Are You Reading? posts and I still post about books as mentor texts...sometimes. I love my Love Writing posts but I've been totally inconsistent with that.

The cool thing about having a blog in general is it lets me think about when I'm writing, what I'm writing, and why I'm writing...or why I'm NOT writing. Just like my life ebbs and flows, so does my blogging. When I first stated blogging, I had a goal in my head to blog every. single. day. And I did pretty good for a while, then Kellee helped a ton, and then things shifted and shifted and shifted.

Not long ago I announced some pretty exciting changes coming up for me in the next six months. A friend asked me what all these changes were about. Where did they come from? And the truth is, they came from me. Looking back over the last seven years, I can see how so many things led me to now, a now that feels really really really right. I feel more aligned with who I am and what I'm supposed to be doing than ever before.

In high school, I remember a math teacher talking us through the proof of a problem. Line by line we moved toward the answer and then once we had solved the entire thing, she gave us the formula that  we could use a shortcut going forward.

I kind of feel like that's what they last seven years have been. Could I have taken a shortcut? Or gone straight to where I'm at now...I mean, maybe. But in the moment, I made the absolute best choices I could have made and they all contributed in getting me to where I am now.

This is me today at the dog park.

And where exactly am I now?

• I'm now a small business owner! Story Exploratory became official in January and I started hosting monthly writing workshops. I've dreamed of this for a long time and thanks to a coaching program I joined, I finally was able to get them up and running. The learning has been awesome. I've learned about myself and about small business and it's been just so great. 
• I'm going to Guatemala! I've wanted to go back since I first visited in 2016. After talking about it and knowing I needed to go, I finally booked myself a ticket. I'll be traveling on my own and staying with family in Guatemala and I couldn't be more excited. In some ways it feels like a rite of passage to go on my own but it's also a research trip. I have books that are ready to pour out of me but I want to get the details right so that's a big reason why I'm going. 
• I'll be teaching again next year! I applied for an 8th grade ELA/SS and EL resource position at the middle school down the street where my older son goes to school. We've already talked about walking to school next year and I've been thinking about how I want to structure my classes and how I'll build an inclusive community in my classroom. I am soooooo jazzed.

These are my three huge announcements. Changes, like whoa. But I'm so ready! They all feel super right and like it's all meant to be. 

Writing this feels absolutely awesome. Especially because writing has been hard for me since last summer when my agent Danielle Smith was accused of fraud and closed her agency. All kinds of writing was hard. Nothing felt particularly fun or joyful or necessary even. I wrote but it was hard.

Not this though. Sometimes an idea begs to be written. I've heard writers talk about how words pour out of them and it hasn't happened to me often but writing this feels like the words are pouring out of me. The words wanted to be written. These ideas needed to be shared.  AND I know there are more words. They are ready too. 

I'm so excited to be back to blogging. I'm committed to sharing about my journey with Story Exploratory, my visit to Guatemala, and my transition back to teaching. Writing about my life and writing about what I'm reading sounds exhilarating in a way that it hasn't for so long. 

My one little word for the year is SHINE and I'm ready. I'm like Captain Marvel at the end of her movie...brilliant and blazing and owning her power. And I can't wait to chronicle it here. 

Keep shining!