TJM: Total Jo Jo Move

2021 really was a phenomenal year. But I'm reflecting a bit differently this year. This year I absolutely did not write as many blog posts as I wanted to. But I’m completely okay with not meeting a writing goal. I didn’t write 1 post per month (or even close to that) because I didn’t prioritize it. But I journaled a ton, and that’s for no audience but myself.  Of course I want to make time for writing for an audience more, but I'm not promising myself any timeline. Maybe a children's book. Definitely a novel someday. Celebs looking for a ghost writer- look at me! ;) Outside of writing, this year I lived my life fully & felt so much gratitude for all the excitement and happiness I experienced. Personally I had some rough moments, like feeling sad about a setback or being disappointed in myself for a mistake. With friends, we experienced some stressful times supporting each other through major life changes. With family, I watched some of them deal with loss and illness,...

HELLO family  & friends, & whoever is just curious to see what TJM means, & anyone who found my page through the link on my Instagram profile. I'm back! This post will be shorter than usual. I'm not writing about books I've read, and I'm not describing favorite spots where you should eat, drink & explore in cities I've visited around the world. (PS I know the mobile layout is bad, plz bear with me anyway) This week, I'm reflecting on my experience getting better at taking care of myself, learning from setbacks, and most of all, celebrating life's great moments. Next time, I'll probably post about reading, traveling, and eating all of the best desserts wherever I decide to go ;) This time, however, the story is about YOU. We all have our own ups and downs that come from being strong women and men today (gender fluid people, you are wonderful too, but my own perspective today comes from being a woman). So this is about those highs & l...

Well, writing one blog post a month throughout 2020 clearly did not happen . My last post was in April 2020, and now it's been almost 1 year since I've posted any writing online. Luckily, I had the month of November off work in-between jobs and got to participate in NaNoWriMo- National Novel Writing Month . The general goal is to write a full novel, roughly 50,000 words. My personal goal was simply to work on my novel for 21 out of the 30 days, 3 out of 4 weeks. I did complete that goal, and I'm very proud of myself. I wrote the first portion of my book- 15,000 words . ( Special shoutout to my friend Rachel who wrote over 70,000 words for her novel! Without her, I would not have started on the NaNoWriMo journey.) After starting a new job in December and now preparing to start grad school, I've pushed the book to the side. I don't know yet if I'll ever finish writing it, in favor of choosing a different story, but I'm just proud of myself for taking the chal...