Hello, I’m so happy to be here and I’m so happy that I found Open Diary

I’m glad and grateful and thankful to have a safe place and safe space to go to when necessary.

Open Diary really checked all the boxes in terms of what I was looking for. I absolutely love and appreciate the Diary Circles. The Diary Circles I signed up for first are You Are Not Alone, Memories, Health & Fitness, Addiction & Recovery, Mental Health Conditions, Grief, Travel & Adventures, LGBTQ due to just life and then what I am dealing with currently.

Finding Open Diary and signing up for it helps me feel not so lost and alone. I wish I had found Open Diary sooner rather than later.

I’m also in the process of downsizing and paring my life down to the essentials.

I’m in the process of moving on, letting go and starting over as well.

I am taking steps to prepare to move overseas permanently once it is safe to do so.

I’m working on ditching social media accounts especially the mainstream well-known established social media platforms. I just do not want to be online so much except for the necessary.

I am determined to get into a consistent journaling habit.

I LOVE journaling.

I use wordpad and notepad and sticky notes on my desktop computer to take notes and make lists and journal.

I am working on reducing and minimizing how much I am on my smartphone, I am training myself to use my smartphone for practical purposes and just the necessary and of course for emergency situations.

I also journal and draw and scrapbook in plain unlined sketchbooks.

I am determined to get back into being creative and in the flow and writing and drawing which I was before 2010. I lost my dog, a dark brown chocolate Labrador, in early 2010 right before I went into military service. He passed away in his sleep in his favorite sunning spot in the backyard from natural causes and he was around 10-11 ish years old.

I have had a rough life and been through difficult times. I’m a former military brat and third culture kid and I’m a US Navy veteran. I’m a child of immigrants and I grew up in the states and overseas.

I became an adult orphan in 2017 right before my birthday when my beloved maternal grandmother who raised me died overseas. She was my true north and my compass, I miss her more than I ever put into words.

With losing my grandma in 2017 and losing my youngest sibling in 2018 and executing their wills & estates and then making sure my remaining younger sibling found his own way again (he was deeply affected by the deaths of our grandma and our youngest sibling) and then finishing up the raising of my niece and sending her off to university in 2021, I am no longer a caregiver.

With the deaths of loved ones, home for me is no longer in the states and so I must search for a new home and new life elsewhere. My remaining younger sibling is also looking into moving overseas. I’ve been an outsider all of my life.

COVID-19 and the pandemic drastically affected myself and my life.

I am in my 30s and I’m currently finishing up an online bachelor’s degree and transitioning into remote work.

Thank you all for having me.

Blessings