Who Am I?

24601!

Photo Credits to the incredible Sarah 

I must admit, I do feel a bit clichéd to be writing a blog. I mean, look at me--a young girl, bored on a summer evening, who finally decided to take the plunge and write her own blog. 

Though I cannot be defined by the things that I love, I suppose it would be helpful for you to know the things that I love in order for you to get to know me. You may have already noticed a reference to Les Misérables: if so, I commend you for your keen eye! I do, in fact, have a great and robust love for referencing other things that I love in every day conversation. Yet, I have many other loves in this world, such as starting sentences with "so" or "also" (I guess this stems from the fact that I struggle to stop talking [it's been a life-long struggle, let me tell you]), and I find it quite necessary that you should know those other loves. So, I do believe that a list is in order:

I love Jesus--imperfectly and messily, but I try to live my life in order to honor him and serve him. And oh how great his love is that he reaches out to me in my imperfection and loves me anyway! He's the greatest, and it is my hope that in this blog I can bring honor and glory to his name while being able to stretch my creative muscles. 

Other things and people that I love: 

-My sister and oldest best friend, Rachael.

-My parents, without whom I'd have most certainly lost my way. 

-My friends, who are as dear to me as family and are as kind to me as the day is long.

-My Moleskine, which holds my ideas both failed and successfully executed (isn't that always the way?).

-Music; its creation, performance, and individual beauty all bring me a great joy and lightness in my heart.

-Wordsmithing; the ability to craft the well-spoken word is a gift bestowed to some, and one that I long for (hence the blog and overall pompous vocabulary)

-Learning French; I'm only two years into that little adventure, but so far I'm in love with the language of love. 

-Musical theatre, which binds me to my friends and to my love of performing. 

-Reading; it was a constant love in my childhood, and some of my best memories involve books. However, as I've gotten older I've replaced my time for books with time for other things. Part of the motivation for the creation of this blog is to rekindle the love of reading once so close to my heart. 

-Stories; I just love imagining lives that have never happened, or contemplating an existence that isn't my own. I suppose that's what makes creative people creative. I identify myself as creative, but something that I'm working on is trying to understand that creativity is not the end all be all of my existence. 

In fact, I'm beginning to realize as I get older that although I don't place my desires for social acceptance in the places that others do, I certainly place them in the wrong things. Sometimes my loves of musical theatre, choral performance, visual art, or other such things get in the way of the realization that my value is not and cannot be derived from these things. It is my hope that this blog will aid me in my quest to place my valuÀ in my identity in Christ, which can never be taken away from me and will never become untrue. 

I do hope that you'll join me on this journey. I haven't the slightest idea what I'll be writing about yet. Mostly, I've just had a desire for a place to express myself truly and freely. I struggled to do that on YouTube because of my lack of true comfort in front of a camera/low editing prowess. 

It is my hope that through this blog I'll be able to express myself in a true and honest way, to have an outlet for my thoughts and feelings, and have a place to share my experiences in this crazy world. 

Oh, and one more thing. You may be wondering why my blog is entitled "Old Enough Again". It's derived from the dedication of the book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis:
      "I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than                books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound          you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.              You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall        probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your            affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis."

À plus tard (until later),
Riley Grace