Whew! I can’t believe it’s April already! On one hand, I feel like 2018 is slipping away from me, but on the other hand, it’s been a pretty eventful year already, and we’re not even halfway through. This post is long overdue, mostly because I’m going through some personal (and professional) growing pains, and I think in turn this blog is experiencing them too. In a lot of ways, I’ve been using this platform as a means of finding my sweet spot as a writer. So I often wonder, as I continue to grow, how will that be reflected here?

 

What’s Next?

I’ve been re-evaluating my vision for this blog. I am still dedicated to sharing what I’ve learned about natural hair: that includes both what I’ve learned in terms of hair care practices and how embracing my natural hair has affected my self-image.  So that part won’t change, but I’m thinking about how to better refine the “bigger heart” portion of the blog. It could be something as simple as changing the format of my blog:  I already separate topics by category, but I could probably make navigating the two sections easier. I have some ideas in mind, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

 

Let’s get back to the growing pains I mentioned earlier; for weeks I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to finish this blog post. I started about four different drafts, each one taking a slightly different direction, but none of them felt quite right. At first, I thought maybe it was a bad case of writer’s block because I haven’t been able to finish a poem in months either. I was feeling frustrated, uninspired, and cynical about life in general. But not being able to get through a blog post was really alarming, especially because 2017 was such a productive year of writing for me. Had I used up all my juice? Does my ability to write only come in bursts every few years? Was this just a phase? Do I just not have what it takes to call myself a writer? These are some of the questions that filled my mind and started to make me question my aspirations and abilities.

 

Learning To Enjoy The Ride

 

I dedicated the greater part of last year diving back into writing and figuring out how I’d like to translate my current interests and skills into a career. It was scary, challenging, and exciting all at once. If 2017 was my year of exploration and reflection, 2018 is a year of taking action and making things happen, i.e. starting the next chapter of my career. The problem is, things are happening, just not as quickly as I would like them to happen, which is obviously really frustrating. But the silver lining in this cloud over my head is knowing that despite my current worries, my frustration won’t last forever. In the meantime, I’m trying to enjoy this journey as much as I can; after all, I’m still learning and growing, and that counts for something.

 

 

On the bright side, I do feel like I’m getting a lot closer to starting the next chapter in my career. I can feel it! Part of that feeling comes from really just clarifying what I want to do, for myself more than anything. What’s tricky is that what I want to do doesn’t boil down to one particular job title in one industry. But in a nutshell, it involves being able to utilize my relationship building skills, eye for detail, writing skills, and creativity. What’s most important is that the work feels meaningful to me, and luckily, meaningful work takes many different forms. Meeting new people and learning about career paths I hadn’t previously considered has also been an extremely valuable part of this process.

 

Something New

In other news, I started my own food blog! I usually post bi-weekly, typically on Sundays or Mondays. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now and I’m really proud of how it’s coming along. Click here to check it out.

 

 

 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. If you’ve ever experienced these types of growing pains, I’d love to hear about it, so feel free to drop me a line. Until next time…

 

 

 

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