Today marks seven months to the day since I published my first post on LPOL, and to say I’m surprised at how far I’ve come is an understatement. With this passage of time, I’ve started reflecting on why I started this endeavor in the first place and how I feel about those humble beginnings now.

When I first came up with the idea of LPOL, it was the last week of winter break during my sophomore year of college. As I recently mentioned in ‘Slow Summer Days,’ periods of time off for me are usually spent in reflection so I can act with a greater mission in mind during the busier parts of my life without having to draw up a blueprint in the midst of chaos. It’s the period of ‘ebbs’ where I evaluate the direction I’m heading towards to create a foundation so I can make the most of the ‘flows.’ During this particular break, I started thinking of how I could bring a sense of purpose into my everyday life, while also considering different ways to make the transition out of college easier if I started following my passions while I still had the chance.

I always had a fascination with blogging, which was largely inspired by watching my own mother run her own blog called ‘Swedish in Atlanta’ when I was growing up. It was so cool to watch her grow her page and come up with different things to discuss with her following, whether it be the directions to making a popular Swedish dessert or how our dog Georgia was doing. Her endeavor taught me the powerful lesson that you can blaze your own trail by simply doing what you love and staying true to yourself. Needless to say, at the time of that particular winter break, imagining myself in my mother’s shoes as a blogger was something I couldn’t do without feeling pangs of anxiety running through my body. It made me uncomfortable thinking about being so vulnerable to the world with your thoughts and life, but that was the exact confirmation I needed to pursue a venture like LPOL. It’s often said that following what scares you most can lead to some of the greatest opportunities in our lives. It’s the rock we don’t leave unturned or door left unopened solely because we’re too afraid of the uncertainty of what lies behind it that can change our lives.

Keeping this truth in mind, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get from A to Z without being scared shitless and abandoning the course due to overwhelm, so I decided to start small by doing something that took a conscious application of courage each day. To simply focus on getting to B, and then after that moving forward to C. Sometimes that looked like texting a temporary summer roommate to please throw out their pizza box that had been sitting on the counter for three days, or making my grandma a memory journal so she could write things down about her life before dementia takes her away from us entirely. Other times it looked like saying hi and looking into the eyes of a stranger as I passed by, or volunteering to partake in playing out a scenario in a business law class. Although I was afraid to act and wanted to stay small leading up to these little occasions, after I completed my daily ‘goal,’ I felt more empowered to get out of my comfort zone the next day, even if it was in the slightest bit. Fast forward 11 months later, I finally had the guts to publish my first post on here. I remember my heart racing and palms sweating for a minute after I pressed “Publish.” And then life went on as it always does. And then I felt more comfortable and published a few other pieces, this time feeling nothing after. If you had told me five years ago that this is what I would be doing I’d of course be surprised, but also happy in knowing that all I had to do was take the first step.

This is all to say that it was never my intention to become a ‘blogger,’ ‘influencer,’ or whatever you want to call it through LPOL (also I hate being put into boxes so I will probably personally never consider myself as being one of those – especially not right now). Rather, I wanted to use this platform as a medium to help me move through the fear of expressing myself that I held onto for years, and to hopefully help others do the same along the way. If there’s anything I’ve come to learn from the past six-ish months of writing on LPOL, it’s that getting out of your comfort zone is one of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and the people around you. It can show you places, perspectives, experiences, and people beyond what you knew to be possible. Yes, it can be scary at times, but it can also be the thing that leads you to achieve your hopes and dreams. I’m rooting for you.

💘 Hanna