So, I started a blog…

Last week, I was reading a NY Times article by Matt Ritchel entitled, “How to Be Creative.” In it, he provides fantastic advice on  allowing yourself to let go and feed your creative self. What really hit me was his section on being imperfect when creating something new. As he so eloquently states…

“Perfectionism is creativity’s biggest foe.”

 

Wow. Honestly, this couldn’t have come in a better moment.

See, I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for years now. I love to write, but it’s a scary process to write something and put it out there for the world to see. It opens you up to criticism, opinions, and a myriad of emotions. Not only that, but something else always happens: Work. Travel. Home. Starting a PhD. Trying to finish a PhD. You know, life and the anxiety of it all. Inevitably, blogging – and writing anything not conducive to my dissertation – was set aside. This, in part, was due to fear of starting something imperfect; something I couldn’t finish.

But this past year definitely set a different tone. It was, by far, the hardest year I’ve experienced: Charlie’s knee surgery. Anxiety. Cancer. Death. Way-too-early biopsy. Self-doubt. World doubt. My 2017 culminated in Hurricane María completely devastating the place I call home. I’ll be writing more about Puerto Rico recovery efforts in Rincón Boricua, but what I will say here is that even out of the darkest moments, there is light. I basically had to stop working on my dissertation for a few months, while I tried to figure out how I could help communities impacted by the storm back home. During this process, I realized how lucky I am to have special people in my life, and I felt a renewed passion for helping those who don’t even know I exist on Earth. I also met a group of amazing, hard-working people who really want to make a difference – so we started an organization and are working with a community on long-term recovery efforts. This experience has reminded me that if you want things to happen, you have to stop thinking and start creating.

All this has brought me here. I’m ready to share my stories with whomever wants to read them. They won’t be perfect… and that’s okay, because life’s beauty is in all its imperfection. And, because life is multi-faceted, I won’t be sticking to one topic (or one language). I’ll be sharing posts about:

• Positivity, creativity and motivation under Inspiration
• My journey and advice about pursuing a doctorate degree under PhD Life
• Public health, research and other geeky topics under Nerding
• All things Puerto Rican under Boricua Corner
• Random topics in random forms under Ramblings
• Quotes by me and many, many others under Short and Sweet
• Food, food and more food under Batata Cocía
• Everything else under Extras

My hope is that you will find some of these entertaining and insightful, and that they inspire you to create whatever it is you want to put out into the world.

Time here is finite, so you need to make every moment count. Como dice mi amiga Vane, el miedo lo dejamos en la gaveta… so, I started a blog!

Thanks for reading!