Fun. Honest. Me.

Over the last few weeks I have been soaking up and enjoying my family and friends. Christmas break for me has nothing to do with gifts, or having work off, and everything to do with reuniting with those I love. Focusing on those I love, and the gospel, helps me think about all the many ways I can be better. I want to be the type of person where I am always getting better, never stagnant and always moving forward, progressing.

I thought a lot about this blog over that time. This space online has meant many things to me over the years. It has brought me so much joy, and even some pains. I have met amazing people, have had amazing opportunities. But have also had struggles with what I want this space to be.

It is impossible to showcase ones life accurately online. What we see is a small portion of an edited life. Yet we forget that. We forget that and we compare and we judge and wish and a whole list of emotions that come from seeing and reading what other people want to share with us. It can be frustrating. It can be frustrating to read something or see something and feel insecure about yourself. It can also be frustrating to write something that others misunderstand. The internet and all the social media that goes along with it can be confusing. It is both positive and negative.

Sometimes I have been committed to this space, other times I have wanted to wake up and delete it. But after four years of blogging, I haven't really done either if I was sharing my honest opinion with you. I haven't been as consistent and committed to it as I would have liked to be, and yet I haven't deleted it. So why? Why haven't I?

There is something about sharing yourself to the world that can help refine you. Do I really think clothes are that important? Is finding a great shade of lipstick something to care about? It can all seem really shallow and petty at the end of the day when we live in a world with real problems. People dealing with real life heartaches. People who need service. 

Yet life is also meant to be enjoyed. A lot of people sacrificed their lives to make it so we could. So we could have fun, we could be silly and free. So we could chase our dreams. I really do believe that "life is meant to be enjoyed, not just endured."

This blog has been a place to document my life, a little online journal. It has been a place for me to explore my interests, and even to share the frivolous and just enjoyable things in life. I have also shared personal more serious things on this blog. While looking back it all just makes me smile. These random little moments of my life and interests preserved. Why is this important to me?

We all have something to share, and it is only human nature to want to share and listen with others. I want to share and learn. I have learned so much about myself through blogging, as cheesy as that sounds, it is true. It has challenged how I view myself and has often showed me how I need to change. Or better yet, how I have changed.

With the start of the new year I want to refocus the purpose of this blog. I want to share myself with you. You, whoever is reading for whatever reason you are reading. I don't consider myself a "writer" but just another person who wants to connect, share, and learn. I am a blogger.

So I have made a list of everything I want this place to be, a mission statement, if you will.

Fun.
Honest.
Me.

Because if I am not doing that, what's the point?