I haven’t touched this blog since November 2020. One year and two months ago.
Don’t get me wrong, this blog has crossed my mind ~at least~ once a month since I last posted on it. Looking back on it, I’ve felt a range of feelings. I started blogging in January 2019- something I had wanted to do for awhile. Failing stats in my fall 2018 semester was the final push I needed to change my major from Business Administration to Communications & Media Studies. Changing majors the second semester of your junior year leaves you with some pressure to play catch-up, and I wanted to start creating writing samples for myself. I had also recently deleted my finsta and I thought a blog could be a new chaotic and expressive way to share my thoughts with the people around me.
This blog ended up being a collection of things: reflections, life updates, recommendations. Logging on in 2022 at midnight with Queer Eye on in the background, I loved some of my old posts and cringed at and deleted others. I smiled when I saw that one of my last blog posts in 2020 was about my dog who passed away a month ago. When I saw a two-part productivity post series I had written, I rolled my eyes. This pandemic has taught people countless lessons, and the dialogue around hustle culture being toxic has been refreshing.
It’s also funny to think of where I was throughout running this blog. When I first started it in December 2018, I was a junior at Emmanuel College. I was a Resident Assistant, Front Desk Assistant, on the executive board of one of my college’s student publications, and in a demanding service/leadership organization. An Emmanuel stereotype through and through. I was also working through a failed relationship with one of my best friends, trying to grow (especially in the areas of self-awareness & personal accountability!), and the friend group that defined my college career was just starting to form.
When I stopped posting on my blog in 2021, I was newly graduated and living in- Upstate New York???? I refer to that period of time as a “healthy bender”. I knew I wanted to try living somewhere completely new after graduating college, and my love of service and the uncertainty of the pandemic made doing a service year in the middle of nowhere look like the perfect option for me. During my year of service with AmeriCorps VISTA in Plattsburgh, New York, I learned how to cook and clean, became slightly more crunchy granola, took walks by lake Champlain almost daily, and started my own small business on Etsy. Most significantly, I came out as bi, and later lesbian, which turned my world upside down in the best way. My 10 months living upstate were some of the calmest, coziest months of my life and I’m grateful for them every day.
That being said, I always knew I’d return to Boston. I was offered a job with a nonprofit I had interned with in college just three days after completing my service year. When I received the call that I was hired, I was staying at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan that had the best balcony/rooftop area. I remember sitting on it and drinking coffee and feeling like I was in a dream! A couple months later, I moved to Somerville (New England’s most densely populated community!), and I have been absolutely charmed by my little neighborhood.
I don’t know if it’s entering a new year or mercury retrograde (I read that this one is about revisiting old projects?) or missing writing, but I felt called to start using this blog again. I’m definitely not interested in having the perfect, aesthetically pleasing blog I once strived for anymore. I edited the theme to be more simplistic and used colors I found vibrant and fun. I don’t even know if I’ll post about my posts all over social media like I used to. Maybe I’ll send it to some friends?? Mostly, I just want a place to write that feels a little more polished than my journal entries, a creative outlet, and a place where I can keep little thoughts and stories. I don’t really care if people see it or not. We’ll see how it goes!
Victoria Harding 