True to anxiety, I’ve been overthinking the best way to go about bridging the gap between the old alohilana blog and the new one. Y’all. I started a blog TWELVE YEARS AGO just to journal my devotions and share them with my friends to encourage them in their walk with Jesus. While I still dearly love to encourage people in their walk with Jesus, some days I can barely remember that life, the one before kids and schedules and student loans.
Oh, sweet innocent 8-hours-of-sleep-per-day-having young me.
The point of a lifestyle blog is to let the sharing happen organically, I totally get that. But for a list-lover like me, organic is more like something I like to see on my kid’s snack boxes, not a lifestyle.
I know, I know. Control freak much?
Anyway, in an ode to loving list-making ways, I’m sharing a list of 10 things I wish I could tell my young blogger self.
1. Look twice, but leap once. Y’all. It’s like, in my DNA to charge ahead and GO FOR IT. And that works in a lot of situations. But in big decisions? Slow down, young grasshopper. Career changes, a painful divorce, and countless awkward moments might have been handled better with a little more patience.
2. Avoid student loans like they’ll haunt you for eternity. No, really. Don’t use them to help you get by ‘that one semester’. Slow your roll. You’ll get that graduate degree, but the student loan debt? You’ll regret it someday!
3. Choose your friends wisely. Don’t trust the length or intensity of a relationship without knowing the depth of it.
4. Stay connected to that childlike faith and wonder! Things will get rocky, and your life and ministry will change dramatically. Your faith will be a keel when the wind and waves threaten to flip turn you upside down (HAAY, Fresh Prince).
5. Value your health, not your dress size! You’ll be all kinds of shapes and sizes over the next few years. You’ll work out. Stress eat. Work out. Stress eat. Lose a baby. Carry and deliver a baby. Your body will endure a lot, so embrace your health and be thankful for it.
6. Don’t take rejection personally. This is a tough one, and 12 years later, rejection can still sting! But know that not everyone is meant to love, or even like you. Be comfortable in who you were made to be, and don’t try to change that fact!
7. Be open to healing experiences. You’ll spend too much time shying away from the pain of heartbreak, fearing where you’ll go if you were to unfurl your sails and let faith carry you forward.
8. Spend more time with your Dad. You’re going to lose him unexpectedly and it will rock you to your core. You’ll spend the rest of your life wondering if you told him often enough how much you loved him, so go ahead and say it enough to be annoying.
9. Never burn bridges. Your passion is fiery, young one. You’re going to speak out against injustice and take strong stands. But don’t die on a hill not worth staking!
10. Invest wisely. You’ll live through lean times and good times, and it will take you longer than it should to learn how to prepare for the unexpected!
If you could travel back 12 years, what would you tell yourself?
xoxo, alohilana 