May 25th, 2016; The Day That Changed My Life Forever..

I want to start this post with Romans 8:18.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

While this is not meant to be a religious post, I thought it was important to start with my favorite Bible passage because it’s what kept me going this past year.

Have you ever gone through something really bad that left you completely broken? To where it was hard to get up each day, hard to eat, hard to find the courage to go to work? Some experience this through breakups, through death of loved ones and friends, losing a pet.. the list goes on. Each day we are faced with struggles and heartbreak and it’s how we overcome them that makes us the people we are destined to be.

Last May my life shattered around me and while I did take a couple of days and even weeks to figure out how I was going to let it affect my  life, I ultimately made a decision on May 25th of 2016.

Disclaimer** For the bloggers reading this, some of you guys may relate to what I’m about to say. And for everyone else, I’ll explain how the reality of how my blogging journey began.

I initially started my blog for 3 reasons:

#1) I wanted something to call my own (I’ve never really been the type to want a “Boss” my whole life). Momma always reminds me of when I sold lemonade at my lemonade stands through elementary, how I sold candy through middle school and how I started selling bows and flowers crowns in high school… haha I guess you can say I was an entrepreneur from the start..

#2) I met DeAndre a couple of months prior in the end of 2014 and he was just beginning his journey of going to the league.. something guys can only dream of. He was a huge motivation for me. We have a connection that way. We have such high expectations for each other and constantly push each other so seeing him pursuing his dreams really made me want to go for mine. He taught me that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! We were also traveling a lot so my blog started with mainly travel entries.

#3) I read Sophia Amoruso’s book #GIRLBOSS… if you haven’t read it, READ IT NOW! It’s linked HERE. It really spoke to me!!! There’s also a podcast which I’ve linked HERE and a series on Netflix. But the book was what really motivated me.

So now that you know the reasons why I started my blog, lets fast-forward a bit. Starting a new blog along with social channels and everything else is A LOT of work and takes a lot of consistency and time. So between relocating back to the Bay Area when D got signed with the Raiders, getting a new apartment in a new city, starting a new job and just all around life, I would probably post on Instagram 1-2x a month… in case you don’t know, that’s REALLY bad haha.. Not to mention I MAYBE posted a new blog post like once every 3 months.. So as you can see I wasn’t as invested in it as I had planned to be..

Fast-forward a little more to March of 2016 (A year after I “started” my blog”), I thought once again that I was really gonna go for it! I attended a conference in LA called Simply Stylist where I met Ashley and Emily from Two Peas In A Prada (check them out) and once again I felt “motivated”.. but not long after that I was back to the same habits of not committing to the process. I think one of the biggest struggles I faced with blogging was not seeing results fast enough.. but that’s like anything right? People who start going to the gym to lose weight want fast results and when it doesn’t happen they quit. Same with dieting and pretty much anything else. Our society wants results and they want them fast. There’s nothing wrong with that, but time and time again we forget that things take time and things that take time are almost always worth the wait.

So about a month later in April I started working for Katie at her company Lola & Ivy PR doing public relations for a couple bigger fashion bloggers. Both Ashley and Katie kept trying to push me to really start my blog but for some reason I just wasn’t ready to. I was comfortable with my life. The idea of really going for this made me scared… I was scared because I didn’t know what people would think when they saw it.. What would they say? These are all normal feelings when you’re putting yourself out there..

So now were up to date. May 2016. As I mentioned before, my whole life turned upside down in a matter of days and I didn’t know what to do. I was completely lost. Am I ashamed to say this? No. Absolutely not. Why? Because it made me who I am today. This sounds totally cliché but its the truth.

So after a couple of weeks of figuring out which direction I was going to let this unfortunate life event take me, I confided a lot in my friends and especially Ashley.. She’s a real one guys.. I can’t even go into detail but I’m sitting here, eyes watering at the thought of how she’s been there for me.. Ash, foreal, you da real MVP. 🙂

We can’t forget about Katie though, she was always there to answer any blogging questions I had.. always there to support me even though I only had 700 followers…

The point of this post is, May 25th, 2016 I decided to not let a trying time in my life define me. I decided I was going to make something for ME! Something I could be proud of and something that no one could ever take away from me… On May 25th I posted the below picture with every single intent to make my dreams a reality and never give up.

It has now been 366 days ( a year and 1 day) since that post and I’m still going. Stronger than ever I might add… I’ve met amazing people through this journey, shot with talented photographers, ate at amazing restaurants, attended New York Fashion Week – something I never even dreamed of and have worked with some of my favorite companies such as La Mer and Google. And most recently, I just started a campaign with The North Face… I used to live in my Denali jackets growing up so it is a dream come true… but this is just the beginning…

So if you’re ever going through something that has left you broken and lost… remember Romans 8:18.

Because the best is yet to come!!!!