A Time to Reflect
Finally. A chance to reflect and recharge.
It has been 39 days since my last Substack story.
Five weeks. Four Days. Countless hours of ‘damn I want to write about that’ that were sucked into a time vacuum that was wielded by the never-ending happenings of ‘life’, so much so that here I am, five weeks and four days later, wondering why my Substack is spotless. Where are my captivating thrillers that linger? Where are the random observations that connect to form thoughtful cultural articles? Where has the time gone?
Let’s try to find out with a 39-day recap.
October 3rd, Mean Girls day, and the final day of my 15-day writing challenge. I appreciate everyone who tuned in to follow along! My open rates were incredible; the marketer in me was just as proud as the writer in me. I was on a high after writing all 15 of those stories and sharing them. Nothing compares to the emotional ride of pushing yourself to your limit, breaking your own barriers, and doing so with others watching. I felt equally rejuvenated and needed a break. That same night, Phillip and I took a trip to Charlotte, stayed at the Ritz, and spent a few hours haunted house hopping at Scarowinds. Couldn’t have written a better end to a writing challenge that was filled with spooky stories.
The next week and a half were packed with filler episode days:
I saw The Sound of Music play with my mother-in-law. It was my mom’s favorite movie, and I actually enjoyed every nostalgic moment of it. The songs came back to me in a rush of emotion and memory. This summer, I passed on going to the city in Austria where it was filmed in favor of touring a couple of castles. Seeing the play made up for the missed opportunity.
I met up with friends, and friends met up with me!
There was an 18-hour power outage in our area because of a downed line. Our apartment complex uses electrical fobs, and we got locked out of our building. Mind you, this was a random Monday night. Our apartment complex’s property manager had the ability to override the system and unlock all the exterior doors. Did they do that? Nope. Not until the middle of the day the next day. They brought apology donuts, though.
Two days later, I packed my suitcase and hopped on a flight to Chicago. It was a beautiful work trip, filled with laughs, networking, and professional development for my student minions who came with us on the trip.
Two days after that, I met up with Phillip in Baltimore for a Podcast Festival he spoke at. That festival is also where we soft-launched our new product, Black Book Stories. Baltimore is many things, but a favorite city of ours to visit, it is not. I swear, we stayed at a haunted hotel. That’s the only reason I can think of for both of us waking up at 3 AM at the same time two nights in a row. One of those nights, I swear, I was going to throw up all over the place. Regardless, we ate well, got signups for Black Book Stories, and left on the first train out of there on Sunday morning.
The final two weeks of October were a blur of event planning and stress. There were seven events I was either planning directly or had a hand in bringing to life from October 28 - November 9. Truly is a wonder of work ethic and perseverance that everything turned out so well as it did. I won’t get into those details (I’ll save that for LinkedIn), but I will share the highlights!
My life is full! It’s bursting at the seams! But I’m dedicating the next 51 days of 2025 to filling the leftover space in my life with words, stories, and Substack articles. Does that mean another challenge? For sure. But it also means building my community on this orange app to reflect that community I’ve built in the real world.
Thanks for joining me on this ride. Until next time!
More of these!!