I love planning trips, seeing new places, and sharing them with my family. The Oregon Coast is a favorite, but the Redwoods, Arches, and the Philippines were fantastical. I grew up with five sisters in an idyllic middle-child’s world. Not the guinea pig but far enough from them to both learn from their mistakes and have excess freedom that came with a double-edged sword of a deficit of attention. I cross my T’s and dot my I’s as proven by a straight A record from 7th grade through graduating summa cum laude with my bachelor’s. I may have been a perfectionist at one point, but having children has a way of trying to beat that out of a person. I’m painfully awkward in my head and my work with Mr.-Collins-like fastidiousness to not appear as Mr. Collins may be self-defeating. That stiltedness is directly proportionate to my time spent in social isolation. Writing relieves some of that fear of appearing an ingenue. Both my journalism degree and missionary service helped me practice overcoming that. Serving as a full time missionary gave me the opportunity to serve Christ, who is the ultimate bridge between knowledge and capability. At the end of a glorious but bumpy 18 months as a missionary, I couldn’t have been more on top of the world. But life has an interesting way of teaching there is much yet to learn. Marriage to a man who shatters my echo chambers with truth while being the ultimate cheerleader has completed me and showed me paths to conquer mountains I didn’t know I had in me. Five beautiful children have given me a new learning curve that fame and impacting the world are not the same - one fades in a day, a year, or a decade while the other is felt by generations to come. Raising a child has that impact whether for good or ill. My ultimate love is learning - the moments in my mind when truth in one dimension collides with truth in another, making each part more brilliant. My aim in this blog is to share light in an increasingly dark world. So if you’re having a particularly tough time with something, my hope is that my awkward words from an unremarkable life will lift your spirit. Whatever brought you here today, I hope you will leave a little stronger to share the light you have within you with another weary traveler in this mortal sojourn. Someone needs you as you are today.