At first glance, I know I seem like so many others.

I’m a married mom of two little girls. We have a dog, Dennis. My day job is in corporate marketing. I live in the suburban Midwest. Our two family cars are a station wagon (I swear, it’s technically a crossover) and a minivan (doesn’t get much more generic than that). My days consist of busy morning routines, powering through meetings, keeping personal relationships afloat and keeping my children happy, loved and fed.

But my first love is writing (my true loves didn’t come until much later). And here’s what I’ve come to realize:

I have a lot to say.

I have opinions, frustrations, reflections. And I want to share them. I want feedback. I want to start a dialogue. And I want to hold myself accountable to my first love. I want to write and I want to share my process with others. Over the last few years my life has evolved quite a bit as my husband and I plunged into the world of parenting. The hectic schedules were at one point a reason to put my writing on hold.

But I remember in first grade how it felt when I discovered writing. I joined a creative writing club and each time I began a story, I was giddy with the idea that I could create someone, something, some new world from scratch. I could give characters names! And choose how they dress, what they like to eat, decide whether or not they have curly hair. Do they have siblings? Pets? Friends? I loved to get lost in creating characters. My writing carried me through middle school as I joined a competitive writing team. Then in high school I continued creative writing as an elective. During college my practical side took over and I chose to pursue communications in hopes of landing an actual job upon graduation.

Enter the real world where creative writing would become my hobby, though in some ways, it helped guide my career path.

Now I go through phases where I find every reason to make writing a priority again. And then every excuse in the book to stop. Something always comes up.

I’ll start again when…

I tend to write in spurts and even when I’m on an upswing, I don’t share my drafts. They stay drafts, hidden in folders and thumb drives, and then I rework and rework until I fall into one of my inevitable lulls.

I recently read an interview with David Sedaris in which he said, “I feel like you either talk about writing or you stay home and write.” I was actually embarrassed when I read that sentence because of how accurately it described myself.

Starting a blog is a far cry from the fictional characters I created in first grade, but with new meaning and purpose in my life, evolving my writing feels right.

I’m done talking. I’m done waiting. I’m ready to jump in.

I hope you’ll join me as I draft, publish and begin conversations about family, parenting, working and trying to thrive in a chaotic world.