who i am; why i’m here

After a bit of an unintentional hiatus last week, I could not have been more excited to see the first assignment for the Blogging 101 course posted to The Daily Post! Starting a full-time job, while completely necessary for both my sanity and my bank account, was not the best thing to ever happen to my blog writing. When you ride a bus to work, spend 8 hours in the office, ride a bus home, drag yourself to the gym, throw something together for dinner, and repeat five days out of the week, you just want to spend every precious hour remaining in bed. (Or is that just me?)

So I’m incredibly excited to have a month full of assignments, challenges, and getting to know my fellow newbie bloggers, which I’m hoping will get me back into the blogging habit that I worked so hard to establish this summer. Today’s assignment is a bit of an introduction post. Although I’ve already posted a pretty decent representation of myself and my life on my About page, I thought it couldn’t hurt to reiterate some of that information here.

First and foremost, hi! My name is Tyler, and this is my blog, Learning to Thrive in 1455. I just moved to Cincinnati with my wonderful fiancé, Spencer, and our adorable cat, Zoey! Spencer and I met in middle school in Rome, Georgia where we both grew up, so I’m a Southern girl at heart although I’ve been lucky enough to travel and live all over the east coast. The last six months have brought about more (exciting!) changes than any other period in my life: I got engaged, completed an honors thesis, graduated from college, moved away from home and started living with my fiancé, and I just recently scored my first real adult job that I already love!

You should read my blog because I love to write (former English major here), and I love connecting with people from around the world. What better way to kill both birds than to blog it out?

Just for fun, here are some questions that were included in the assignment:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?

Having recently moved away from home, I have a whole network of wonderful people who want to know every little detail of Spencer and my life living “up north.” Unfortunately, neither of us have the time (or patience) to spend hours a day filling everyone in. By blogging, I get to keep up with my writing while giving family, friends, and family friends a glimpse into our day-to-day lives. Shoutout to two of my biggest fans: my grandfather and my college roommate! 🙂

What topics do you think you’ll write about?

As a recent resident of the real world, I imagine I’ll be writing about all of that everyday stuff that seems so novel to us twenty-somethings: cooking (mostly) square meals like homemade spaghetti sauce or Greek yogurt Key lime pie; learning the ins and outs of a new job; planning a wedding (check out my series Something Blue!); motivating myself to get enough cardio and lift some weights throughout the week; decorating the apartment; living with a finicky cat; catching up on my favorite shows; and much much more.

Who would you love to connect with via your blog?

Honestly? Everyone! People from around the world, my family, other residents of Cincinnati, college friends who are spread across the country, some of my heroes, etc. I would also love to connect with other twenty-somethings who are living in a similar boat: new diploma; new job; new city; new roommates; new pet? I’d love to hear from all of you!

If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

My idea of a successful blog would revolve around communication between me and a great network of other bloggers and Internet-goers.  I would love to see comments on posts, follows on Bloglovin’, great conversation on my social media sites.  I want to hear from other bloggers about their lives and be heard when I post my own writings on the real world.

Thanks for stopping by!  If you’re new to my blog, I hope you’ll stick around throughout the month as I get schooled in Blogging 101.  Do I have any fellow Blogging University students out there?  Leave a comment below, so I can check out your introduction post.