I am from a small family where my father was an only child and so were his mom and dad, my grandparents. On my mom's side of the family, my mom has one sister and her mom and dad had a couple of siblings each. I have one sister who is three years younger than me and we are pretty close. Only living about 15 minutes from each other, we mostly text and when we talk it is almost like we just talked a few hours ago. With busy schedules dictating our lives, family has always been important to me and I consider friends my family also.
When I was younger and living in New Jersey, I always wanted to write as I was very expressive as a child and talked a lot. {at least that's what my mom told me} I always had something to say and being expressive through smiling at others is always the first thing people say when they meet me. Most times I get asked: "Why do you smile so much?" Is it for me or to help others? Feeling naturally good is always something I've felt inside even when times were tough. I relied on my faith and feeling good internally to get me through any pain I may be experiencing. Smiling during those times was all I had at one point so I latched on and never let go.
Since 2009 only a year after my daughter was born, I found out my father was very sick. He passed away the following year in February 2010 and my life has been a bit of a roller coaster since that time. I have always been a very happy person; I get along with just about everyone that I meet and interact with in my personal life, at work, and people I meet in the grocery store and anywhere else in my travels. There are always some exceptions…
Since 2010, so many trials and tribulations have come my way and I feel like I have handled them well - except coming to the realization that my marriage was over. My first thoughts were "no not me!"..."but I'm a nice girl!?!"... "we have 2 kids - what do I do now?!" Going through my divorce only three years after losing my dad was pretty traumatic. 14 and a 1/2 years of marriage and 2 children, was the icing on the cake...and it wasn’t the pretty buttercream or chocolate icing that we are used to. My kids are now 19 and 12 and we are doing well (thank you for asking). They are great kids, strong and resilient and also full of energy. If it weren't for my kids, my family and friends who knows where I would be today. This journey called life brought me right here to A Life With A View.
I talk about my journey in a lot of my blog posts since one post just won't do it. Right here on the blog, I highlighted Join Me On The Blog Journey and you can access the post here. Bringing everything together over the past 7 years has been a journey in itself - one where I would not change one thing. The constant thing about this journey is me, the girl behind the dream, behind the brand, and now in front for the world to see.
A Life With A View has grown and is still growing and expanding with more of a focus on you and what you want to see. Being an author of 2 books and a collaborator on 1 book, I see the need to share this knowledge and more of my experience as a published author and to help other share and tell their stories. Through this journey and the people who I have met while walking my journey, through networking events and by coincidence, I felt within my heart to share more through my work about the book publishing process.
Becoming a published author is not something that happens over night. After over two years of blog posts, I felt compelled to combine those posts into a book since the blot posts told my story and shared a peek into my experience as a writer. The first book, A Life With A View, is more of a short story version of my life through snippets of my written blog posts. The second book, Inspiring Creative Passion, dug deeper into my writing and the energy behind expanding my writing and growing as a writer shined through the second book.
On this blog and through our digital space, we will journey together so you can tell your story and be proud of what you are sharing in your own way. Our Resource Library has a host of people to help you get started no matter where you are in the process.
What’s your story? Are you still writing it? My story does not stop here; it keeps developing with me and the main thing is connecting with others and sharing our stories and continuing to grow.
