ANOTHER JOURNAL ENTRY | Katie Huntley

  I can honestly say that so far I’ve enjoyed my 30’s more than my 20’s (a sentence I never thought I’d say). Why? I think mostly because I know myself more. I’m confident in who I am and what I want in life. Do I have it all figured out? Not even close, but I’ve learned a few lessons over the past 32 years and wanted to share them with you today. God is real. Heaven is real. People make time for the people they want to make time for. This is just a fact. Life is like chutes and ladders. You wanna take a short cut and not put in the work? Look out for the slide right around the corner, cause you’re going back down eventually. Hard work pays off and if you want to have sustainability in what you do, there are no shortcuts. Put in the work, one day at a time. “The person you see at the top of the mountain? They didn’t fall there, they climbed every step of the way.” If a guy likes you, you will know. If you aren’t sure, he’s not that into you. Walk away happy you missed the bullshit....

One of the things that have always put me in a good headspace and cleared up my anxiety is putting on some good music and just driving.  A couple weeks ago, I decided to go out and visit my dad's grave and so my best friend and I loaded up and took backroads out to the cemetery.  This is the community that I grew up in - it was bittersweet driving out there.

Grief. Where do I even start? I’ve tried to sit down and write this post so many times, but the truth is, sitting down to write means reliving everything I’ve been through in the past year and a half. I want to start with a disclaimer: I am not a therapist, a doctor, or anyone claiming I know what is right. Instead, I’m just a girl who has been through some really hard shit. I’ve walked through it, I’ve lived with it, and today I’m finally ready to share my story. Maybe you’ve never experienced anything like I have. I pray you haven’t. It’s not a fun club to be a member of, although, I know many of you are from talking to you. Maybe grief has looked different for you, and that’s ok. In fact, that’s lesson number one. If there is one thing I can tell you, it’s that grief looks different for everyone. We’re all human. We all feel things. We all have eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but we aren’t all exactly the same. We need different things, express love in various ways, and ...