The first step | Journey to a little thing called Blog

When I was 18 I wrote a speech that began with "the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". Over the years, it's fascinating how many times I've replayed that in my head. More first steps than my 18 year old self could have ever imagined.

Last week I finally took another first step - blogging my way to a new chapter of life. For years, way more than I can count now, I've had this lingering desire to create a blog. I always thought it would allow me more time with family as we'd go trekking our way through life as house-flipping small-town traveling adventurers. Yes, all of that and then some.

But nothing seemed perfectly appealing or the right fit at the right time.

So, like many of the ideas I've sketched and tucked away, my blog just became another thought, maybe never to be discovered or dreamt of again.

That was until 2022. I was finally taking action.

My son was spreading his wings into the real world. I watched him eager and living his best life in what he'll eventually call 'the good ole days' of college and I was hit with the realization that at some point I blinked, he was grown and along the way I had lost pieces of me.

Thankfully just pieces and not all of me.

My gypsy soul still intact and my burning desire to see and be and share was still with me. And so was Seth, 20+ years my life partner. Not always perfect but never dull. And even that was changing rapidly as we found ourselves part of the empty nesters club.

And so as my son started his next chapter of life in college, I realized it was time for me to turn the page along with him. That next chapter would be titled, The Wanderful Years.

It finally had more than just a name. The dream had a direction and a plan and even a look. It was all set! A blog of adventure and travel and authentic living - exposing my very shy self while attempting to find and enjoy living my own best life.

Or so it was going to be.

Days before I was to sit down to write my first blog, my world was rocked. And as I write that, in this moment it sounds so selfish actually because it wasn't just my world. It was ours. It was his. And since it was his, it was mine.

That's when everything changed.

That's when the real turning of the page happened. That's when life became more than the next chapter. Instead, it became "before the accident" and "after the accident". That's when my definition of The Wanderful Years would become vastly different.

I was no longer just another wanna be travel junkie trying to make a dollar to support my irrational early retirement dream. In an instance, it had all changed and I was now a mom, grasping for just one more second with my son as he warriored his way through the chapter none of us could have imagined.

I became the mom of a child who had suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury - and lived.

And that's when I knew I wasnt going to let another idea just fizzle. That's when I realized that each of us has a unique story and if mine could help someone, anyone, I was going to make our story count.

And 1 year later, it's time.