I write this post with a heavy heart and bittersweet tears in my eyes. Trying to refrain from being too dramatic for the ole internet, yet my heart is truly feeling alllll the feels. This post marks the end of an era & the close to an important season that has shaped my heart. Today I shall conclude Creating A Lovely Life blog. (*cue all the tears-- happy & sad*)
As my high school career drew to a close, I learned (and still am) the importance of endings. I have felt a need to retire CLL for quite a while due to the lack of desire to post & an even larger desire for something new. We often embrace and praise beginnings, nevertheless endings are dreaded and often avoided. I do not want this space on the internet to feel like that. It is with joy and thanksgiving that I close this chapter!
Here's the thing: I have loved this blog. I love it because I can see true growth in the archives of my posts. Started in the eighth grade (age 13), content like "The Top Knot" and "My Favorite Spring Shoes" (cringe) was filled with trivial fashion or DIY posts (and overly-saturated photos-- talk about yikes). Not that those are not valid posts (as I had to begin somewhere, and that therefore produced growth), but I felt the urge for something more after a couple years. By ages 15 and 16 , I began writing posts with more emotion and heart (see "Don't Take Yourself So Seriously" and "Thoughts on Perfection"). I started to take ownership of my writing, and was eager to write my URL down for anyone who showed the least bit of interest. Yet, I think it was this past year that I am most proud of. With post like "In The Questions", "Thoughts on Firsts, Lasts, and Progress", and "The Ten Encouraging Days Project", I felt vulnerable, genuine, and understood a glimpse of what it means to be truly creative.
Like this blog's description states, I feel I have sincerely [shared] pieces my heart here & there. I do not know who read my content consistently or at all, but I hope this place has been one that has encouraged you, inspired you, or has made you think. I hope it has been a place that you have felt welcomed, understood, or been able to remark "I like cats that much, too!".
Yet, as they say (all cheesiness intended) "as one door closes*, another one opens". Therefore, this journey is not over just yet. As Creating A Lovely Life has been a place for me to share personal growth and pieces of my life, I feel the need to move on and grow up, of sorts.
Therefore, I hope you will continue to follow me in my writing as I now pursue a degree in Journalism (yay!) to my next space on the web: Habit & Heart (click text for link!). This site will be one more specific in content, personal yet relatable, and one that I hope also influences and uplifts all those who encounter it. This next adventure has been created with a lot of thought and a lot of heart. Habit & Heart will "[celebrate] real lives through your inner creative"-- and I could not be more excited for this fresh start!
I cannot say thank you enough (so thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you) for following this silly adventure of mine. For supporting my writing, for believing in my dreams, but most of all for simply reaching out to tell me that you read a post & were touched by it.
Slowly, slowly, slowly I am creating a lovely life for myself. One with beginnings and endings, and one with a whole lot of love. And boy oh boy, have I loved you, CLL.
Slowly, slowly, slowly I am creating a lovely life for myself. One with beginnings and endings, and one with a whole lot of love. And boy oh boy, have I loved you, CLL.
Yours truly,
Cate
*Though this site will no longer be updated, I have chosen to still keep it up to invite you to peruse the archives.
*Though this site will no longer be updated, I have chosen to still keep it up to invite you to peruse the archives.