Welcome to the new and improved version of Jayandace.com! To all 7 of you who followed us on the first iteration of the website, thank you so much and I hope that you enjoy this new verison just as much.
As you can tell. I’ve made some truly massive changes to the look, feel, and over all brand of the website and this is for a few reasons:
1. It NEEDED an update.
When me and Jamie decided to start this website in April, it was mostly as just a fun thing to do while we were separated. We would work on it together over zoom, but in the end it was mostly me sitting on my computer frantically contacting WordPress’s support team every time I couldn’t figure something out. This lead to me having a lot of fun, but not a very functional website. I would include a picture here for reference for all you newbies, but fortunately for you, I don’t have any. But let’s just say it was an over-ambitious attempt at a style of blog that was outdated, too complicated, and much too time consuming for two 19 year olds who needed something to do in their spare quarantine time.
Fast forward 7 months later, pretty much everything in my life has changed but the blog was still the exact same. This didn’t sit right with me. I let the craziness of life get in the way of my ‘peace and relaxation project’, and that needed to change. So I logged back in (after several failed login attempts and password changes) and I got back to work.
2. I needed an outlet.
This may sound like a selfish reason, but hear me out. Since the beginning of 2020, like most people, everything in my life has changed. I moved back into my parents house, changed schools and life directions, received the blessing of a goddaughter, cut my hair, and witnessed the amazing journey of my partner’s gender transition, all while battling a relapse in my mental health and trying to stay safe in a pandemic. While most of these are positive changes, I’ve had to grow a lot in ways that I never expected to just to keep up with the constant change. I’ve worked very diligently on forgiving myself for past mistakes, setting boundaries that empower me instead of hinder me, and creating coping mechanisms that are positive but at the end of the day, no matter how much time I spend I will always need a place to spew my anxieties and frustrations. And this seemed like the perfect place.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no intention of using this blog as some sort of pity-party/diary where I scream about how awful my life is to a world that is suffering much more than I am. In fact, its the opposite. I want to share the positives as well as the negatives and give an authentic view of what it’s like to be in my shoes, as well as some other fun stuff along the way. This is a place for love, light, creativity, and balance above all else, or at least I want it to be, and I hope that by creating this goal, I can find those things for myself as well.
3. I wanted to do it right.
Since I was first introduced to the idea of a blog somewhere around the age of 8, I have wanted to create one myself. I have made countless ‘google blog’ accounts, most before the age of 11, to try and satisfy my need to write and be read by an adoring public. But lets be honest, creating a successful blog these days is about as likely as becoming a successful You-tuber (a phenomenon usually that usually occurs in tandem.) And I’ve been aware of this fact since my ‘google blog’ days. My dad told me when I first showed interest in becoming a professional blogger that “if you didn’t start a blog ten years ago, it’s probably just not gonna happen for you.” Keep in mind this conversation happened when I was 8. Obviously people have made successful blogs since then, but in a way he was right. People with the longest running sites are much more likely to be successful and garner a high reader-ship. But that got me thinking, how is anyone supposed to have a long running blog if they don’t actually start one?
So this is me, ready for the long run (but actually this time). Ready to work hard, put in real effort, and try my darndest to create a blog that I am passionate about so that maybe, in ten years or so, I will have something pretty special. And even if this blog goes nowhere and no one even reads it, I will still be proud of the work I put into it and the lessons I learned from earnestly and honestly giving it my all.
So yeah, this is me reintroducing myself to this blog, the platform, and the community I hope to one day build. I will be posting on here a lot more than I used to (3 posts in 7 months? Wow, really high bar there), and trying really hard to create a space that I and , hopefully, others will enjoy. Make sure to check out our podcast “NOVEMBER” coming to you within the next few weeks. We’ve been working really hard on a bunch of projects that we’re really excited to share so keep an eye out for those as well. Anyways, I hope you and yours have a great day! See you guys later.
N o v e m b e r 