I thought about quitting this past week. There, I said it. I have been feeling a little underwhelmed lately and maybe even a little discouraged. Not because I do not love what I am doing, because I truly do. I love telling these stories. I love sitting down with women and hearing how they built something from the ground up. I love walking into businesses and getting to know the people behind them. I love seeing a production, experiencing it, and then coming home and finding the words to tell all of you why you should experience it too. I love highlighting women, businesses, artists, organizations, and people doing incredible things in our communities.
I pour so much of myself into every single story I write. Every spotlight matters to me. Every interview matters. Every business that invites me through their doors matters. Every theater that gives me a seat matters. I spend hours interviewing, researching, writing, editing, sharing, and trying to make sure the person or place I am writing about feels seen. Whether it is for the blog or the paper, I want people to know that when I tell their story, I genuinely care about getting it right.
Lately, though, I have had to admit that sometimes I do not feel that same support coming back to me. This is absolutely not about everyone. There are people who share nearly everything I write, recommend me, invite people to follow me, comment on my stories, and constantly remind me why I started doing this again. I see you, and I appreciate you more than you probably realize.
But there are also moments when I look at how much time, energy, heart, and effort I put into supporting other people and wonder why that support does not always come full circle. I do not expect everyone to share everything I write. I do not expect everyone to constantly promote me. I am not keeping score. I just think sometimes we forget that the people who are cheering the loudest for everyone else need people cheering for them too.
My growth is not happening at the volume or the speed I hoped it would. Numbers are certainly not everything, but growth does matter when you are trying to build something. Every follow, every share, every comment, every recommendation, and every person who tells someone else about my work helps another story get seen. More importantly, it helps me continue doing something that I genuinely believe has value.
So maybe this is me sounding the alarm a little bit. If you enjoy what I write, please share it. If I have written about your business, your production, your story, or something you care about, please help me get that story in front of more people. If you believe women deserve spaces where their stories are told and celebrated, help me grow this one. If you know someone who would enjoy what I am doing, invite them to follow along.
Because after thinking about quitting, I realized something pretty important. I do not actually want to quit. I want the exact opposite. I want to jump back in with both feet. I want to write more stories. I want to meet more women. I want to discover more businesses. I want to see more productions. I want to ask harder questions, tell bigger stories, and continue building something that feels incredibly important to me.
I also realized that I cannot build this entirely by myself. I need the people who believe in what I am doing to help me carry it a little further. I spend so much of my time asking people to support women, support local businesses, buy the ticket, visit the shop, read their story, and give someone a chance. Today I am asking you to do a little of that for me too.
Share my work. Talk about it. Invite your friends to follow. Send me the women whose stories I need to hear. Tell me about the businesses I need to walk into and the productions I need to see. Help me get this thing that I love so damn much in front of more eyes.
I thought about quitting this week. I hope that me voicing what I need will help me build what I am trying to build.
*images by upsplash*
