3.25.2013

One Year

I started this blog exactly one year ago.  I told myself that I'd give it a year and, if it was something I didn't enjoy by now, I'd stop writing.  Enjoyment it is a vast understatement of what this blog has meant to me over the last year.  It's been an outlet, a place to learn and gain advice, a place to share the minutiae of my life with far flung family (I love a good alliteration: far! flung! family!), a way to stay connected with friends, and (by far) meet SO MANY new ones.  I have so much gratitude for the women at Oiselle for embracing me into their fold.  It was just over a year ago that I got the email from Kristin welcoming me to this team of crazy awesome women.  There is so much love and an overwhelming amount camaraderie among this group (teammate Rachelle explains it better than I can here).  Without them, I probably wouldn't have thought to start a blog in the first place.  And, of course, I named it after a beloved Oiselle line of tees




 I could never have imagined what a social outlet the 'blogging world' (gah, I wish I had another phrase) would be.  And it couldn't have come at a better time in my life.  

As this hilarious Huffington Post article points out, mom friends can come and go pretty easily.  I had pretty much lost touch with a bunch of them over the previous year with our kids going to different schools.  Life happens and it's certainly not the first time circles of friends have shifted in my 38 years.  Yet the hole it left in my life felt a little deeper, because most of my friends that I have outside of being a mom (my college friends and my closest and dearest friends who've known me since the goofy and insecure Junior High days, those pick-up-right-where-you-left-off-friends) live oh so far away.  


20 Year HS Reunion with my three besties.  We hadn't seen each other in about two years! Looking at this pic makes me so happy and also makes me weepy.  blargh.

Having made connections with others through running has filled a large part of this space I have in my heart and I couldn't be more grateful.  My running friends see me through a similar lens as those that 'knew me when' - me for me, and not my kids.  I feel super close to my 'mom friends' - especially those that go through the same struggles I do and parent in similar ways.  There's a real intimacy that forms when you see each other almost daily and your kids are all in the same boat.  I miss that and need that; I guess I need to go to more PTA meetings - kill me now...  But, at the end of the day, I think that they all still sort of see me (or each other) through the lens of how we are as parents and not the girl who would always get a burrito from La Bamba with you at 2 a.m. or that will talk about tempo vs. fartleks for an hour.  I forgot how refreshing it is to have these kind of relationships, too.  


So thank you friends, one and all: my family (even my cousins read the blog! not just my mom! holla!), my oldest friends, my knew-you-in-the-trenches mommy friends, and of course, my Oiselle, twitter and blogging friends.  It's been a wild ride and I'm looking forward to many more years of commiserating.

12 comments:

  1. Congrats Andrea!! I cannot believe you are 38! Whenever I see you I think you are so much younger than me:) Happy Blogiversary!

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    1. ha! well, thank you :) I'm a mere 4 months from 39, too, aaaah!

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  2. Well Andrea, we are in the same age boat. I'm some months shy of 39 too. Congrats on one year of blogging . You are doing it well.

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    1. Aw thx Nolana! I think our kiddos are the same ages, too! ha.

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  3. I can totally relate to the "friend thing". So tricky! I would be the one getting the burrito at 2:00 a.m. too....

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  4. Yay!! Congrats on one year! I've felt the same way- been so surprised by how much I've enjoyed blogging!

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  5. Congrats Andrea! One year is a long time. You're inspiring me to keep my blog up to date :)

    And PS I love you new blog header - so creative!

    JJ

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    1. ah, thanks JJ - well, being a student, I'm sure you don't want to spend more time in front of the computer! :)

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  6. Congrats on your anniversary!!!! Here's hoping your second year is even better :)

    ps - when are we getting drinks?

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    1. Duuuuuude. I totally was thinking about you when I wrote this and that convo we had over dinner, oh, about a MILLION years ago! OK, maybe it was just one year ago :) Yes, we need to do drinks soon!

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  7. yeah, happy one year! Cheers to blog friends. :)

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