Time To Be Innovative

 

I stopped writing…

One of my friends asked me recently, “Why was your last blog post in 2023?”

I had to stop and think about it. Had it really been that long?

See, I moved to the DMV (not the license bureau, the place – DC, Maryland, Virginia) in 2022. When I moved here, I thought that with all the adventures, I’d surely have a ton to write about. I would write about the places I got to see, I’d write about what finally making it looked like, I’d write about my relationship.

And then…I just stalled. I get to see a lot of places, but work can be hard. I love the DMV, but finding my circle here has been a challenge. Did writing about the hard, make me a failure? Was the fact that it’s hard sometimes, mean that I’m a failure?

And of course, there’s the relationship.

See, what used to happen is that people would ask me how I was, and I’d say, “I’m fine.” Then I’d go and pour out every emotion, every dream, every let down, every excitement onto paper.

It’s different in a relationship. After six years together, Eric has learned “I’m fine” rarely means I’m fine. It means I’ll revisit this in two days. I’m not ready to talk about why I’m upset. I need to process it, then I’ll talk about it.

As I learned how to deal with my emotions in a healthy way, how to express them, how to feel safe, I stopped putting words on paper.

This year has been a little different. I still wrote my goals for this year, and wrote my word of the year, I just didn’t publish it. But my word of 2026 is “innovative.” For me, that means creative, creative solutions, creative ideas, create things.

Then I picked up an old chapter I had written several years ago, and wrote a chapter two. And a chapter three. Now I’m on chapter ten of a story that never got to be told, for someone who never got to have her own voice.

So I guess I am her voice, and I guess you could say, I’m writing again.