The Blog is Back in Business!

Hi everyone! It’s been a long (ahem.. 8-year) hiatus.

I never even said goodbye. But I guess you don’t know a goodbye is needed when you don’t decide to quit, when you just stop doing something and don’t realize there was a last time until eight months down the road and you think about how you haven’t done the thing. And by that time, the ship has sailed? Or so they say. I think what they mean is that you tell yourself it wasn’t important.. so that you don’t have to feel anything about it.

So that’s where I’ve been for eight years. I slowly stopped doing things. I’m sure I had great reasons for stopping them (we’ll dive into all the psychoanalysis with that later). Basically, my mind has been a mess. About four years into not doing things, I hit pretty deep depression. And it has taken me another four years to unpack that and come back to myself.

So hi! I’m Lauren. But a very different Lauren.

I originally started Great Minds Read Alike after a different and shorter bout with depression when I was 24ish. I decided to help myself, I would start getting back into the things I love – reading, arting, and writing. I discovered the Bookstagram community, and things took off from there. Everyone was raving about Netgalley, so I jumped on it and started a book review blog. Then TLC Book Tours contacted me, and I reviewed for them. I started making a lot of book friends on instagram, and some of them were selling books. I, an estate sale lover and library sale lover, was like hey, I could do that! So I did. I also started making pottery and got all these big dreams of putting book quotes/bookish watercolor paintings on them (If you followed me on instagram, you might remember The Storied Potter). And I loved all of it.

In between all of that, I moved, I changed jobs, I started hating my chosen career field, I started remembering things from my childhood that had been buried for a long time, and my mind sort of locked up tight. I kept having dreams, but they stayed in my head. And almost ate me alive. But I’ve been climbing my way out.

Now, I’m 34. I’m back because I discovered that what has always helped me out of these times in my life is writing. I’ve been searching and searching and searching for the creative thing that will set me free in these last four years… not understanding until recently that I’ve been circling around it. WRITING. The thing that gives me that look – you know the one when you observe someone doing the thing they completely get lost in, the thing they love but almost don’t know they love because it’s just about that thing in that moment. A presence that nothing else can give you.

I’ve had the same realization about writing several times in the past year (funny, how the universe teaches you the same lesson over and over until your stubborn ass remembers it). I actually started trying to be a little more serious about writing in the past few months because of these realizations. I deemed it MY CHOSEN CREATIVE FIELD. But that, in hindsight, also stifled a lot of creativity.. because I stopped doing the other things I love – painting, tarot, reading, etc. So really, it took me a long, long time to realize I am not one thing. After I tried to force myself to be all sorts of one-things. But none of us are one thing. And it’s kind of crazy to try to make ourselves be one thing.

So I’m back to write and talk about my writing process. I may start some writing essay/poetry series on this blog. And I will probably also talk about my mental health and spiritual journey over the past eight years. I’ll still do some book reviews looking at the stories from a writer’s perspective, and I’ll talk about my journey as a writer from a young age.

I recently joined a writer’s group, and I realized these people also do five million things. That was another a big moment of when it clicked for me. I’m changing all the time, and I love to write about it. Writing helps me make sense of the world and myself. So welcome to my mind. It’s quite a shit show, but I’m starting to accept my shit show, and I hope maybe my shit show will help someone feel less alone in their shit show.

I’m eventually planning to change the name of this blog and redesign the website, but I decided not to let that gatekeep me from just writing. So you know.. don’t be alarmed when I just randomly change shit again. It’s just me over here… embracing my shit show.

ILY. You’re the best. Thanks for reading my shit. Thanks for seeing me.

– Lauren