My Alternate Life, take 2

This is nothing like the life I thought I'd have

You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation, for the suffering, struggling parent, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important.

James Baldwin

And this is the hardest part. The part I’ve been avoiding since 2019.

Actually writing.

When I stepped away from my personal finance blog My Alternate Life, I only meant it to be for a short period of time while I handled a personal matter.

Little did I know that personal matter would spiral into a life altering upheaval, followed by four years of enduring a chronic illness, complex post-traumic stress, a job change, multiple cross-country moves, and the death of my beloved dog, Molly.

Oh, and there was a pandemic in there somewhere too.

Yes, it’s been four years, but I’m still here. I made it through, and I’m ready to start writing again.

Why I’m not returning to My Alternate Life

Aside from the fact that I’m not sure anyone even reads blogs anymore, returning to write on My Alternate Life didn’t feel right. I’d poured my heart and soul into the site in the 2010s as a 20-something who was up to my eyeballs in debt.

I was so earnest, so positive, and, in retrospect, so naive. It was the writing of someone who had never had the rug pulled from under her. Someone who was confident that life would go according to plan.

Even though the basis for starting My Alternate Life was reconciling the fact that a large home, two cars, and enough money leftover for vacations was woefully out of reach to my newly graduated, deeply in debt self, I’d worked hard to make my new life something to be proud of. I was debt free, married, had a small home, one car, and a family of furry dependents.

Now, my life has changed dramatically again, and so have I. I’m not that person anymore, so I won’t be returning to My Alternate Life.

My Next Life

Instead, I’m here.

My Next Life will be different than my blog, in ways that I’m honestly still discovering.

Some pieces will be publically available for all, while other, more personal pieces will be gated behind a paywall. (You can see more about the difference between paid and free subscriptions here)

I’m still discovering how I’ve changed, how my attitudes around money have evolved, and who I am after all of this upheaval. Hell, I don’t even know what my writing voice sounds like, although I suspect it has become distinctly more sarcastic.

What I do know is that I’m ready to share where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing, and, most importantly, how I’ve been picking up the pieces after my life fell apart.

I don’t think I’m an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think I’ve been in the trenches of loss and recovery, and if sharing my perspective resonates with or helps you, then it’s worth it.

If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, I hope you can find some peace here.

Talk soon.