Welcome back to me! If you follow my blog, you know that I’ve been away for a while. It started because I had all of these outlines, and I just couldn’t finish anything because my heart wasn’t in it. I kept myself away because I knew that I wasn’t in the best place to write anything great. I was working hard on NaNoWriMo, on a very difficult topic and a novel that I only planned the first 15% and the last 5%. I have had so many ideas, and I honestly didn’t write any of them down. Every time I opened the file for my blog posts, I immediately closed it. I needed the time to be able to come back and do a great job.
It was really difficult for me, I was extremely worried that I was going to lose followers. I was very concerned that by staying away, I was losing momentum that I had worked so hard to gain. At the end of everything, I knew the best thing for me was to just stay away and wait. I knew that when I found my inner clarity, I would come back without any struggle at all. I would open this file and I would see happiness and a future for my blog. And that finally happened when I sat down to write this.
What have I been up to to take care of myself?
- Putting my heart and soul into finishing this PhD. I worked so hard last week and I was so proud of myself. I created a great mind space for myself and I’m really honored.
- I have been working on creating new knitting projects, specifically for Etsy. I am still working on designing Kindle and iPad cases, because I think they’re really useful. But I’ve been really struggling with them, from the yarn to the pattern and everything in between. It’s a work in progress, and so I switched gears to mug cozies, which went very well! I designed two new ones this weekend, and I’m really hopeful that they’ll be up in the store soon.
- I’ve been reading, albeit more slowly than I wish. I’m really knocking out some books that I think sound awesome, but maybe not books that I would pick up all the time. I finally just said that I was going to read what I wanted to read and that’s the end of the story.
- NaNoWriMo. I am once again a winner, I am a first time writer all 30 days, first time donor, first time buddy, and so much more! It was challenging, but I really think that this book is in better shape than mine from 2017 and I can see the progress that I’ve made. I am considering posting a chapter to the blog, but this is still under consideration.
The lesson today is that it’s really important to know yourself and know what you need. Never try to do anything that you cannot do, but keep testing the waters. I wouldn’t feel nearly as good today if I hadn’t been trying to write. I think I did the right thing, and I hope that you all respect that. Let’s finish this year off with many posts from me!
She’s Got a Whole PhD 