If you follow me on instagram, a few weeks ago I said that I want to be as transparent as I can be here on my little corner of the internet. I want to be honest and real and use this outlet to express more than just my favorite clothing items and beauty products. Don't get me wrong, I love styling outfits, creating content, and sharing all of that in hopes to inspire you, but let's be real, life is messy sometimes and it's important to know you're not going through everything alone.
It is my hope that starting this series will help me to better connect with you and show you that I really am just the every day girl, trying to make it. Sometimes instagram can be deceiving because it is a highlight reel of the best moments, prettiest photos, and everything that we're proud of. Always remember: no one is as perfect as their instagram may look. As a matter of fact, no one is perfect.
So, to start off my Real Talk series, I want to talk about the season of life I am currently in and help you get to know me a little bit better. In a little over a week, it will be my 25th birthday. I'm going to be a quarter of a century old (as Rob would say). For as big of a milestone as it may seem, I don't really feel any different, which I'm considering a good thing. As I reflect on the past year, even the past couple of years, it amazes me how far I have come.
Time for some background info. I graduated college with a degree in health & exercise science in 2014. After realizing I needed to come up with plan B, I took the following summer & fall to find inspiration and create this so called plan. I re-enrolled and went back to college during the spring 2015 semester. This time I was going for health & physical education. As much as I love being active, working with kids, and having a killer schedule, I had some trouble finding clarity in this decision. I kept asking myself, is this what I truly want to do for the rest of my life? Sometimes the answer was yes, but most of the time it was no. And that was scary. Because what's the point in spending six years getting a higher education and then doing nothing with it? There is a point and we'll get to that later. But regardless, I finished strong and now have two undergrad degrees that I am absolutely proud of.
After one semester back at school, Pine Barren Beauty was born in August 2015. I had been thinking about starting a blog for a long time, and finally decided to make my dream come to life. I created Pine Barren Beauty as a creative outlet to express myself and share my love for fashion & beauty with anyone and everyone who would want to follow along. There is so much work that comes along with blogging and it quickly consumed me. I was convinced that I could make this work because I was conveying a forever passion in a new way that lit a fire in my soul. (Read more about how my blog came to life here).
In the mean time, I was (and still am) falling more in love with Rob every single day. Our current situation is living in his parent's basement. We have our own little space with a bedroom, living room, and kitchen that I decorated to make as cozy as possible, so it's pretty awesome. But ... it's a basement. Which means no natural light. And as a blogger, I live for natural light. My bedroom at my parent's house has amazing natural light, but the walls are wallpaper from when I was a baby (yuck). SO I don't have a space that is truly mine and let me tell you it makes things hard. Especially when I'm Pinterest obsessed (follow me here) and love creating beautiful content. Enter the idea to transform my room at my parent's house into an office space. Stay tuned for the final product because this is totally happening and I couldn't be more excited.
Fast forward to today and here I am. Living life. In love with my soulmate. Done school. Running my blog. Working part time as a receptionist at a local salon with the best work fam I could ever ask for. Life is so good. But what about teaching? Because trust me, I get these questions all the time. "So you're done school, are you looking for a job?" "How's the job hunt going, have you found anything yet?" The answer is no. I haven't found anything and I'm not really looking. That might be hard for some to hear (or read), but it's the truth. But that's not to say if an ideal situation were to come along I wouldn't accept. I don't know what I would do but if the time comes I will surely have to make a decision.
I almost feel silly (which is silly in itself) telling people I'm perfectly content with where I am right now in life, because like I said, what's the point in going to college and then not being proactive in finding a job related to your degree(s)? The point is that everything I've done in my (almost) 25 years of life has been an experience that has gotten me to where I am today. I am working towards a dream and doing something that truly makes me happy. And isn't that what the goal in life should be? To be happy and love what you're doing day in and day out? I understand there are bills to pay and money to be made and not every day is going to be sunshine & rainbows. BUT, let me ask you - are you happy with your current season of life? Can you honestly wake up every morning and say you love what you do. If you can't, don't you want to be able to say that? I know I do. No matter what your current season of life is, it's never too late to make a change and start over. We all have one life to live and I'll be damned if I don't live mine doing what I love.
That's all I've got for you today! If you made it to the end, thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts on this new series! If there are any specific topics you want me to write about leave a comment or send me an email.
PS I totally cried reading this out loud to my work fam haha. These words are from my heart and pressing publish has never felt so good <3
xo