The Beginning

Hello, everyone!

It’s me, Amanda, and, for those of you who may not know me, hi! My name’s Amanda. It’s nice to meet you!

Basically, this is my introductory post, explaining why I’m finally starting this blog. I say finally because, as most of you know, I’ve been talking about starting a blog for over a year now. Over a year of my life has been spent daydreaming about how amazing my blog will be, and how excited I am to write about fashion and beauty and travel and music and everything in between. Daydreaming, and not actually writing about any of these things.

I moved to Oregon in September of 2014 to get a “fresh start” on my life. Billings, Montana, my home town, had offered me 19 amazing years full of wonderful education and great friendships, but I knew I needed a change, and I was ready to start anew and finally figure out what direction my life was headed (west, obviously). For some reason though, I thought moving to Oregon would be the only step I needed to take, and I’ve been struggling through excuse after excuse as to why I haven’t actually followed any of my other dreams. “I don’t have enough money.” “I don’t want to drive my car because it could break down at any possible second.” “Being a girl alone in a big city is terrifying.” Yada yada yada.

Despite all of these ridiculous excuses, however, I’ve managed to wiggle myself out of my comfort zone just enough to experience some amazing things. Ever since I moved here, I’ve tried so many new things that I wouldn’t even have access to in Montana, and I always told myself it was “for the blog”. Everything I’ve done for the past year is “for the blog”, but I feel like that’s entirely pointless if there is no blog in the first place.

I guess I’m kind of a control freak (spoiler alert for those of you that don’t know me), and when it comes to certain aspects of my life, I’m a perfectionist too. I have this perfect ideal of what my blog should feel and look like, and I’ve had the hardest time accepting that it won’t necessarily be perfect when I start out. But that’s how all of the best things start, isn’t it? Rough and rocky and full of bumps and challenges. But overcoming those challenges is what makes something perfect. Scars give a face character.

So, after long talks with virtually every important person in my life (Hi, I love all of you), I’ve come to terms with my lack of perfection, and I have to start this thing. So, here’s my blog. Welcome. This is going to be my way of expressing my life. I’m finally going to quit talking about it, and start doing it. I’ll post often. I’ll post about my adventures. I’ll post about my hobbies. And I encourage you to please follow along and share this with your friends.

Thank you all so much for your support. I’m excited to finally bring my dreams to fruition. I love you all and please come visit again soon.

xo - Amanda Jean

P.s.- What is something you've always wanted to do? Let me know in the comments below!

[[P.s.s- I also write daily semi-fictional stories called Drabbles <here> if you’d like to check them out. Thanks again and see you soon!]]

*Photo courtesy of Jackie. Thanks for taking pictures for my blog for a week. I'll get them posted eventually.