I'm Back.

You know how sometimes, you need a few months just to find yourself?  I'm not saying at all that I was lost in life, or that I lost a sense of direction or anything, I'm merely stating that I had to take a few months off to remember who I am and what I love.

Blogging definitely comes at the top of the list.

Last December, I tried a little experiment.  I had just returned to the states from a four-month long adventure, and I had to remember who I was and what I loved.  It was no easy task.  My mom took me shopping and I filled my closet with blacks, whites, and creams (anyone who knows me even the tiniest bit knows that I'm a bright pink and glitter person).  This wasn't like me at all.  I told people I was trying to remake myself--perhaps this was my way of adapting back into my normal everyday life.  Not only were the clothes different, but I didn't listen to country anymore, and I never finished, let alone started, a craft project.

Things were weird.  I couldn't remember what I loved to do.

But here we are.  Now, I wear sparkly earrings everyday and bright shorts and shirts, just cuz I can.

I listen to country music as country as it gets.

This summer alone, I've made a quilt and a pencil skirt, not to mention all the cards and scrapbooks I've worked on...

I bake.  Yeah, I'd forgotten that I love doing this...
I keep in touch with old friends through written letters.

I hang out with kids for a living.
I go shopping just to go shopping.
I've remembered all the things in life that I love to do.

So my advice?  Never try to be something you're not.  In one of my favorite movies, A Cinderella Story, Austin expresses an interesting thought, "I live in a world full of people pretending to be someone they're not."  Isn't that high school to a T?  Don't fall for the pressures of the world around you to pretend to do or love or be something you're not.  "Love who you love with all that you have" as Rascal Flatts puts it.  Love the things that make you happy, for those are the things that define who you are.  Be the kind of person you want to become.

So who are you and what do you love?