The First Chapter.

I decided it was time to get back into blogging for myself, so here it is: girlslikewords.

Since I was a little girl, I have always loved writing. I remember being in elementary school, writing stories on our fancy new home computer about CareBears. When I was older, it was fictionalized versions of what I thought high school would look like: giggling girls in bathrooms, talking about the "big game" and their crushes. (And upon arriving at my freshman year of high school, I learned it was anything but. Clearly, I listened to "Be True to Your School" by the Beach Boys one too many times for my own good growing up...)

Then in eighth grade, I joined an after school writing club and wrote a goofy essay about who my best friend was: my teddy bear, Snuggle. (Yes, that Snuggle.) I submitted it to an essay contest in the Houston Chronicle and low and behold...I was one of eight winners.

I guess it was pretty hopeless after seeing my name in print. I joined journalism in high school. I majored in communications in college. Monday morning after graduation, I showed up at my internship-turned-real-job at a newspaper.

In the last two years, there's been lots of ups and downs. Lots of making mistakes, growing up and moving on. I like to think of it as my quarter-life crisis. I've spent most of the last two years, helplessly wandering from one temporary part-time job to the next. (Counting all my individual freelance gigs, the total sits at a hefty eight jobs from January 2009-August 2010.) But I have no regrets because I firmly believe every single decision you make gets you to the next page, the next chapter, the next book in the series.

So I guess I should look at this as a brand new book: I'm home in the place I grew up. I have a beyond perfect job, finally. And as a single twenty-something girl, I have the freedom to do whatever I want with my life. The possibilities are endless.

I still have some things to figure out: paying off school debt, finding my own place to live again, oh...and that pesky boyfriend thing so my well-meaning mother will stop talking about the "nice, tall" night manager at Target...

But until I get that all sorted out, here's to being the Carrie Bradshaw of the suburbs, writing about daily adventures as a magazine editor, life lessons still in the learning process...and the constant quest for the perfect faux snake skin bag.