Welcome to a new year and to my brand new blog!

While a new year often has people making resolutions, I choose to think about fresh starts and/or new beginnings. These two are not the same things. A fresh start means trying something again, maybe with a new outlook, new tools, or a new reason to reach your goal. A new beginning means venturing somewhere you have not ventured before. This could be physically or metaphorically.

Neither a new beginning nor a fresh start needs to be perfect. These are life changes that will be taken one day at a time. Maybe there is a misstep one day. That does not mean failure.

I am going for a new beginning and a fresh start this year. My fresh start is a different blog for a different day. However, my new beginning is beginning with this first blog post.

Since moving to Alaska, I have known I wanted to explore my creative side. It took me two years to figure out writing is what I wanted to try first. Then it took some research and talking with a friend for me to figure out I wanted to try blogging. I have been mentally preparing for the last few months. At the beginning of December, I set the launch date as January 1. I then researched and signed up for a web site. That made it real. I felt committed and knew I needed to make it happen.

The site is a work in progress. I have some editing and designing I need to learn how to do. I am stepping out of my comfort zone in a couple ways. First, having people read what I write is a bit scary. Second, by putting this blog out to the public before everything is lined up the way I think it should be goes against everything ingrained in me over years of schooling and work experiences.

With all that being said, here I am. With my next post, I will begin with how Alaska came to be on our radar as a place to visit then live.