The Gift of Starting Over

You can make anything by writing. —C.S. Lewis

Over the last six months, I made two major life decisions and surprisingly, I was at peace. They were also “Holy crap, no plan either?!” moments.

In this article, I wanted to begin talking about the gift of starting over.

And I don’t just mean in career, but in life as well.

For me, writing has been such an incredible gift throughout my life. Writing has been a way for me to share and memorialize my experiences, express my emotions, and add value to other people’s lives.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

My love for writing began in 7th grade. A girl introduced me to poetry and I fell in love. You know what I thought? Finally, a way for me to express my emotions without having to talk to anyone about them!

MY JOURNEY

During the rest of my middle school years, I spent a lot of time writing poetry about my crushes. In high school, my writing journey evolved into writing poems for guys to give to their girlfriends.

Halfway through high school, I paused on poetry as I explored other creative avenues like singing and dancing.

I ended up sticking with dance and choir and chose to do some acting during my senior year.

I had SO much fun acting and was sad I had just discovered it right when I was getting ready to graduate, but decided to live with my emotions.

During college, I wrote some poetry, but focused on my degree to increase my skills in communication and becoming a better public speaker. I also ended up opening a Xanga account (I’m aging myself, aren’t I? LOL) as a chronicle to all my college experiences and traveling (mainly road trips). In the midst of that, I started my career in fashion.

After five years of reading other girls blogs, I began to learn the ins and out of WordPress, opened my fashion blog, and made my website disappear manyyy times while learning code, hahah!

Although the name of my blog has evolved over the years, I still stuck to blogging and sharing content that my younger self would want to see. I also loved writing captions for my posts during the early years of Facebook and Instagram too.

Throughout this time period, I also ended up acting again, co-wrote a song and begun writing my first book (unintentionally).

MY RETURN TO WRITING

As my career in fashion grew, I worked such long hours. I went from 40 hours a week to 70, nearly brushing against the edge of 80 hours during some weeks. While I liked my job, I didn’t love it. If I wasn’t helping plan Fashion Weeks, I was working Fashion Weeks. It was a serious year round job. I hardly hung out with my family, didn’t have a social life to see my friends or make new ones, and my health was declining.

To boot, I was definitely no longer writing — the only creative outlet I had and turned to during the beginning of my fashion career.

And anytime I was able to help someone word something better or write something at my day job, I was so happy I could use my skills (and degree)!

That said, it lead me to majorly reflect on what I was doing with my life and time.

POETRY

Then last week, Eric Guilmette, who is an actor, poet, and business owner (and is just the sweetest person!), shared this poetry prompt on Instagram with the following challenge: “If you’re a writer, write in the comments, ‘I hope you’re doing okay’ without writing, ‘I hope you’re doing okay.'”

I was instantly excited and got to thinking. After I shared my answer, I realized that Eric’s challenge just reignited my love for poetry and writing in general!

So I decided in that moment, in midst of using my writing and communication skills to add value to people’s lives, I also wanted to return to creative writing such as poetry. While I don’t see myself as a fiction writer, I’m open to it. You never know, right?!

I know. I know. You’re curious as to what my answer to Eric’s prompt. Here it is:

The beat of my heart whispered your name.
Long days, heavy nights, all I can feel is silence.
The crushing weight, all the ache.
Please know I’m as near as the next breath you take.

While it is exciting yet scary, I am very much appreciative of the gift of starting over. After all, if your heart is still beating, you have time. Time to reflect, time to redirect, and time to begin again.

If you’re thinking about starting over or have started over by choice or by external circumstances, please know you’re not alone. Fellow millennials sounded off on this Instagram post about pivoting their careers.

The comments and experiences are so real and very relatable so I hope you take some time to read them as encouragement.