As I believe I have shared before, I created this blog back in 2017 when I was experiencing what some might call a pre-quarter-life crisis. I had just graduated college, early, I was applying to literally any job that wasn’t slinging coffee in my hometown, and I was absolutely miserable.
I had pushed myself so hard and gone through the motions so fast, that I had never stopped to think about where I was headed. Don’t get me wrong, the degree I had worked toward taught me a lot, awakened a passion in me like I had never had before, and I was (and still am) damn proud of it.
However, I was terrified because for the first time that I could remember I didn’t have a sure-fire plan. I had no goal set before me that drove me forward and gave me the courage to overcome whatever obstacles stood between me and that planned-for end.
I was lost. I was lost in the way that a person in a spacious, dark room is, just stumbling around hoping to find something to cling to or some way out.
So, in the dark I took to writing. Writing was always a source of joy, even when I was just a little girl writing make-believe stories about adventures and hopes and dreams. Then I didn’t write to impress anyone or to be known, I simply wrote to get out the stories that danced in my brain and to process the great mystery of possibility that lay before me.
When I thought I had found my way out of the dark by finally getting out of my dead-end job and starting another degree, I abandoned my source of joy. I didn’t need it anymore.
And, over the next few years, I felt lost again and would pick it back up only to give up on it or find something much less useful to fill my time with.
Now, I look back on the beginning of this site. How excited I was to get creating, to begin to tell the stories that were worth telling, to bring joy not only to myself but also to those around me.
I think back to the time when I would write my mini novels about adventuring in the woods or saving animals or having the best of times discovering the world. I think about how unafraid I was to create. I think about how proud I was each time I shared a story with someone, how I eagerly anticipated the laughter and the smile it would hopefully bring.
I share all of this, not to tell more about myself and how this space was created. No, I tell this more to state my purpose.
My purpose in reopening The Lemonade Stand is not to create flawless content. My purpose is not to offer advice on things that I am no expert in or to make life seem perfect. My goal is not to pressure anyone else, or myself, into creating a false image of “having it all together.” I will not pretend that life is easy or that it’s always pretty.
I will, however, always look for the good. I will share the world from my perspective, whether it be the latest challenge coming at the world or simply a pair of ridiculously cute shoes.
I will work to find that childlike fearlessness again, to create what’s on my mind without wondering if it’s good enough.
I will write because it brings me joy. I will cherish the moments when my creations bring light to another’s face and starts a laughter that makes their day. And, even if that laughter or that joy never comes, I will keep writing. I will keep seeking joy.
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