Author name: aliciadowellAdmin

Every year for the past few years, I have chosen a word to help me grow, thrive, and make things happen. For the last two years, I have chosen the word: Magic. 2023 and 2024 taught me lot about the magic of healing, figuring out who my people are, the magic of slowing down, the magic of everyday life and finally the magic of showing up. I understand I haven’t shown up much in the last two years and if you are here, welcome back!! I will have to rebuild this blog from the ground up and I can’t wait to see where this leads me. Now for my word for 2025. With the healing I have done in therapy I have learned there has been a role I have been stuck in and played for many years. I was taught to play small and that others have it worse than me. Which is not a bad thing fully but rather I let it take over me and how I showed up for myself and others. So this year I plan on playing BIG. Big ideas, big plans, finding my voice and using it in a big way. I want to step into my own and see how big I can play. With that in mind, I finally shared some of my writing online and it has been very quiet on that front however, I am also going to be sharing it here. I have always loved the written word. Reading is one of my favorite things to do. If you go through my desk drawers, Google docs and hard drives, you will find so many stories I have written, planned or came up with ideas but never shared. Prepare yourselves because you will be the first ones to get to see most of my writing now. There may be times I have to play small here to play BIG in my graduate courses. Not only is it Glitter’s senior year, I am in the middle of my second masters degree. This is something I have thought about and at first said no to. The more it weighed on my mind, I knew I had to go back and get it. Jeremy has been such a trooper through this all to help me fulfill my goals. So welcome back and I am excited to see where the year of BIG goes!

I have a three month update here on my word for 2022 but I wanted to give y’all an update on the year so far. To be honest these past seven months have been a blur. This blur has been good and bad but well worth it. First, I have been creating lots of stress for myself. I have decided to go back to school and try for my Master’s degree. So far, I am rocking the whole going back to school as an older adult. I have taken two classes (currently graduate gpa is 3.5!!). I am in the middle of two more classes but am holding steady at A’s in both. Going back to school goes hand in hand with me becoming a teacher! I am currently teaching High school ELA elective classes and I have to say my soul is filled with joy even in the rough spots. Journalism, Creative Writing and Speech classes are what I am teaching. Nervous is an understatement when I let my current job know I wanted to move into a teaching position, but honestly I shouldn’t have been. I had been in the job for almost 5 years (it didn’t seem that long). I had been encouraged to move into a classroom by my boss and fellow teachers. It took me that long to get into the season of my life where I knew this is I belong. I don’t know how long this season will be but I am soaking it all in and letting it fill my soul. Finally, I am facing my 40s head on. My birthday is coming up and I am excited to see what these years bring. I am starting to feel like a grown up as these years are coming. So things which I will be working on during these next few years: getting our forever home, graduating with my Master’s degree, working on a book ( which I have changed so much). This is just to name a few things. So I have been creating so much these last seven months of 2022 and I am looking forward to see what else I am going to create in the last three months of 2022. I want to hear all about what you have been doing this year! Leave me a comment, drop me an email. Let’s connect again!

If you don’t remember the word I chose for the year, you can click this link to read. I wanted to share how I have been working with this word since I have been quiet on this front. So grab a drink and get comfy while I share my word for 2022 update. I have been working on finding out what the word: Create means to me. Does it mean, create to find a way out of my job? Do I create just to bring myself joy? Do I create to bring joy to others? What is my relationship to this word? Well I have decided to create for the joy of it. I miss creating just to create and see what comes. Just because something is done doesn’t mean it must bring income. I have lost sight of this on my part and would like to create again. Here are a few ways I have being creating for the joy of creating. Junk Journaling Taking pictures Making a weekly spread for journal Reading more If you are not familiar with junk journaling, think of it as scrapbooking with no purpose. Or this is how I think of it. I have been seeing some TikToks of this and loved the idea. A little secret of mine is, I am a semi hoarder of craft supplies with the dream of becoming a full time creator of things. Which means I have the supplies on hand for junk journaling. Here are a couple of examples of what I have done. Second thing is taking pictures. I know this seems odd because I share pictures with y’all all the time, however, by this I mean taking pictures just to take picture of what catches my eye. Here is a great example. I was walking up to a friend’s house and the street light gave a great shadow of myself. This made me pause and snag a picture just because I thought it was neat. The weekly spread is similar to the junk journaling but it helps me keep things on a weekly basis. Which in turns also helps me stick to a meal plan to keep us on track. As for reading more, I had gotten stuck in a rut wanting to read but coming up with reasons why I shouldn’t be reading and instead doing all the things. This was only helping me stay in a creative rut. I also started reading anything including a light read or two. As I read, I start to have ideas pop into my head and I grab my little book to pop them in. The poor thing now has book binding tape on the corners and the spine since it is always with me. So now you know how I am figure out my word of the year: create. I hope to bring you more ways I am learning to use this word. I can’t wait to go on this journey together. Which way do you feel drawn to? Or would like to know more about? Tell me in the comments!