No lie, I sat down and read through Bethany's ENTIRE blog, Love Grows Design yesterday.  This may or may not have started at work *cough* but I was so overwhelmed and inspired by every single thing she posted about blogging, working as a freelance designer, personal struggles and creativity. I had to share.

 It's so wonderful to come across blogs that remind you that not only are you NOT alone in this crazy freelance design world, but also to help encourage you, inspire you and help you to think outside of the box with your business and yourself. I love coming across bloggers who I feel like we've been friends for years even though I've never actually met them. I cannot stress it enough, check out her blog!

In particular, she wrote a post inspired by another blogger and this tweet by Kara Haupt:  

What would 16 year old me think about me today.  I felt very motivated to let that stew in my noggin for a while.  And I came to this conclusion.

16 year old me was a day dreaming punk rocker who spent the majority of her time doodling in art class, at theatre rehearsals or playing drums in the band she was in. She planned to attend art school at a liberal school in a liberal city and make lots of liberal friends. She was creative and had dreams of traveling the world with her also punk rocker boyfriend and doing the starving artist/designer thing. I wanted to change the world through my art. I've always known that I wanted to be a designer.

What would that girl say about me? I never planned to work in an office all day or get married young and have a child and then get divorced all before my 25th birthday. That's for sure. But I think she would be very proud of where I am today. She'd say that I've worked hard and pushed myself to be different. She'd be very impressed with how business savvy I am and how I can tackle a client meeting without even having a panic attack. She'd probably yell at me for not traveling more though. And also for eating so many Hershey's Hugs. She'd definitely tell me to have more fun and spend less time worrying about the little things.

Sometimes you really just need to cut yourself a break and give yourself credit for how great you really are and for what you've accomplished. Because we are all pretty awesome in our own way. We should never forget that. My life didn't go how I thought it would, but there truly is a reason for everything. All the decisions, mistakes and events that occurred led me to exactly where I need to be. With a wonderful man, with a pretty cool kid that I adore and creating my dream business. 16 year old "US" obviously had a lot of growing up and real world experiencing to do, but her dreams and passions were very real.

So… what would your 16 year old self say about you today? Please share your thoughts!



Kat