Happy Birthday, Grandma!

I don't really expect my grandma to read this. Not because she's not tech-savvy. In fact, she was emailing and surfing the web before any of the other grandmas I know! I just haven't told her about my blog - I haven't told anyone about it! It's really hard to put myself out there. This is definitely something I struggle with. I am so worried that I'll fail (or do poorly) at something that I'll keep it a secret until I'm sure I can succeed. I didn't tell my family I was running a half-marathon until a few days before the race. And I remember being sooooo nervous to tell my family that I became vegetarian! I am from the home of Omaha Steaks...I was scared I'd be pegged as the hippie-girl that moved to New York, or something silly like that. Don't get me wrong, my family is great. We are very close - I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters and we would do everything together if we could. And my parents are very supportive of everything we do. The pressure I feel is definitely internal. I love to challenge myself to do new things, but I don't like to be bad at them!

So what does this have to do with my grandparents? At first I thought this was just a huge tangent, but then I realized...my grandma calls me 'her butterfly' because of my beautiful free spirit. And my grandfather likened me to a bird - telling me that I can soar to whatever I dream. I think they got it right. I am going to embrace this endeavor. I need to stop worrying about what other people may think and go after what will make me happy! I want to blog. I want to meet new people. I want to learn new things. And I'm going to do it.

I love you, Grandma and Grandpa!