If you scroll through this blog, you’ll notice a pretty big gap between posts. My last one was dated January 24, 2023, and if you’ve been around for a while, you probably wondered what happened. The short answer: life, in all its messy, demanding, and heartbreaking ways.
Back then, I was juggling more than I should’ve been. I was working heavily with Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc., running my own promotional products business, keeping up with Achy Smile Shop, and doing a lot of advocacy work. Most of my energy went into social media, events, and helping others, not into sitting down to write longform.
Then, in 2024, everything shifted. I lost my brother to his mental health battle, and it stopped me in my tracks. I stepped away from public advocacy, resigned from the CMA board, and focused on something I’d been neglecting for a long time: my own mental health.
Advocacy didn’t disappear from my life, though. It just went quiet. I worked in the background, designing shirts for Shades for Migraine, fulfilling achysmile.shop orders, and supporting awareness work in smaller, quieter ways that felt manageable.
Now, I’m slowly reemerging, not in the same way as before but at my own pace. I’ve learned that stepping back doesn’t mean giving up. It means choosing sustainability over burnout. These days, I’m also working full time as a Senior Technical Writer and Product Designer for a company in Michigan. It’s a new chapter that balances my passion for advocacy with the stability of doing meaningful work every day.
So yes, my last post was from 2023. And yes, I’ve changed a lot since then. But I’m still here, still creating, still advocating, still finding my way through. Just a little slower, and a lot more intentionally.
I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t know if this will be my last post for the next twelve months. I’m going to take it easy, listen to my body, and hopefully still bring you some insightful content along the way.
