About Me

I was born 20-something years ago in the middle of nowhere Texas. I was raised by parents who love me more than I deserve and am lucky enough to have an older sister who I’m incredibly close to, both in age and relationship. I’ve gone to church my whole life, and became a Christian when I was nine, albeit for the wrong reasons. By the grace of God, I was rededicated at eighteen (when I finally realized and accepted what following Christ means) and have been doing my best to live according to His will and plan ever since.

I was the opposite of a social butterfly growing up — more of a solitary moth, if we’re sticking with the insect visual. Instead of going out and playing with friends, I stayed inside and devoured books. So maybe not a moth, but a bookworm. A very, very, very introverted bookworm.

Over time, my love of books turned into a love of writing. By eighth grade, my career plan was to study writing at UT Austin, teach at the college level, and become a bestselling author by age twenty.

If you haven’t guessed, none of the above happened.

Instead, I went to a much smaller, much lesser-known school and studied writing there. Throughout my time there, my passion for writing grew, and so did my faith. I started to realize that my passion for the craft was as strong as ever, but my love for the writing and publishing world was fading fast. I became disillusioned very quickly, and the difference between following God and following the world became starker and starker each semester. Eventually, I had to choose a path to walk.

That choice came in the form of changing all my plans of being a big-shot writer and stepping into the scariest decision I’ve ever made — pursuing full-time ministry. Looking back now, I see God was calling me to live my entire life for Him when I was eighteen, but I was too scared and too stubborn to accept it. Instead, He convicted me right before my final year of college that I can’t just be a Christian on the weekends — it has to be my whole life, career included, or none of it.

By His grace and perfect plan alone, I still graduated with my writing degree, and three anxiety-filled months of unemployment later, found myself in an internship at a church on the east coast. It was only a six-month job, but God used it to both pad my bank account and teach me more about combining my writing and my faith. And after I left, I had (and still have) the privilege of continuing my work for them, remotely and part-time.

When I came back, I faced another disheartening three-month period of unemployment. Like before, I unsuccessfully applied for job after job after job. But then, God once again provided for me, and I got a job in a city a few hours north of my parents’ house. This was an administrative role, not a writing one, but it was for a church, and I had to trust that somehow, God was working everything for my good. So, I took a leap of faith, and by His grace, I’m still in that position and at that church to this day.

For a long time, I was filled with doubt and grief over my writing, because I thought that if I wasn’t writing for work, God wasn’t using it. I thought my creative writing had just been a phase, a season to get me to where I am now. I was disappointed. I was confused. I was angry. And yes, again, I was grieving. I felt like I had lost part of myself forever. I questioned why God had put this gift in my life only to lead me down a different road entirely.

And then, a gray cloud rolled back and I started to see my situation clearly.

I remembered how burned out I had been towards the end of my internship. Some people are built for constant creativity, cranking out new ideas at the speed of light. I was made for stewing and soaking, chewing over ideas to the point of missing out. I’m creative, but also meticulous; fixing and maintaining is more my speed than pouring out new, new, new all the time.

My internship required me to be a creative machine all day every day, which took a lot out of me. I was writing amazing things I had never dreamed I’d get to work on, but there was no room or energy for writing outside of work. My short stories suffered. My poems suffered. I couldn’t even muster up the juice for my novels, which are by far my favorite thing to work on. By the end of six months there, I needed rest. I needed a change.

My new job, my administrative job that I thought could never do anything for me, writing-wise, gave me exactly that.

I see now that since my job doesn’t revolve around writing, I have more desire to pursue my craft in my free time. I can open up a word document without feeling a deep weariness settle on my shoulders. I want to write, and actually have the time, energy, and ability to outside of my work. And don’t get me wrong, I love my job, the projects I get to work on, and the people I get to work with. God has blessed me with a role in a ministry that fits me very well. But it’s been even more of a blessing to realize that God has me exactly where I need to be, and He hasn’t given up on me, my calling, or my writing.

So, that’s where this site comes in. I started it a couple months after coming home from my internship, and then it sat dormant for years. I didn’t know anything about what I wanted it to be, only that I wanted to write and put my work out there, and this was how I wanted to do it. Years later, I’m finally putting the pen to the page — or the fingers to the keyboard, if you want to be technical. I know I won’t be in this job or this season for forever, and God has so much more planned for me, but for now, I’m grateful.

Grateful for my ability to write. Grateful to have enough energy to write. Grateful for a renewed passion to write.

And grateful for you, for taking the time to visit this page and make it this far. It means the world to me.