As an almost 17 year old, I’d like to think I’ve lived a lot of life, or that I have all the answers, but I don’t, at least not yet. In my 17 years on this earth, I’ve lived in a lot of places,  I’ve met a lot of people,  I’ve experienced high and low points, I’ve picked up some pretty amazing friends, and I’ve learned a lot. Although, in my 17 years of life I’ve never experienced what I’m going through now. For so long I believed my story began October 18th 2001, but now I’m realizing this year, this transition, and this move is only the beginning to the Gracie Story. I started this Blog to take you all along on my adventure and share with you my love for life, traveling, fashion and writing.

Everything up to this Point:

Now that you know why I’ve started this Blog, I’ll share a little bit about my life before the move to New Jersey/New York. I was born In Indiana and I was brought into this world by the two greatest people I’ve ever met (aka my parents). They lived in a little apartment above a garage, my dad was a youth group leader and my mom worked as an office assistant, so it’s kinda crazy how 17 years later we’ve landed in NYC. Shortly after I was born, my parents had my sister Ellie. Not sure how they raised two kids 16 months apart but they did! Then when we were just toddlers my parents packed up our lives and we moved all the way to Los Angeles, California. This was the beginning of my childhood always being on the move. We lived in California for a less than a year, and then it was time to move again. We moved to Nashville Tennesse for three years where I spent my time running around in pink cowboy boots and going to Grand Ole Opry shows almost every weekend. But after a short time, we knew it was time to move back to the small town of Fort Wayne Indiana where all of our family lived.

I spent kindergarten through 5th grade in Indiana playing barbies with my sister, having dreams of going to a local college, and growing up a small town girl. For six years that’s all I knew and all I wanted but I wouldn’t be the person I am today if we wouldn’t have left safe and small Indiana. One day towards the end of 5th grade, my dad got offered a job to be a proffesor and teacher at Xavier University in Cincinnati Ohio. I didn’t even have to think twice about moving this time. All I knew was that Cincinnati was bigger than Fort Wayne and that sold me. So here we were again saying goodbye to friends and family, packing up our life and moving four hours down to Cincinnati. Long story short, moving to Cincinnati was the best thing that ever happened to me. I met my best friends in the entire world, went to an awesome Montessori school, and joined a killer youth group. We started fostering a 2 year old girl who became my 2nd sister and I had many opportunities to travel to places like the Bahamas, Utah, Church camp, and China. I could genuinely say I loved my life. Yes there was some low points because what high schooler doesn’t have low points, but by the second semester of sophomore year I was having the time of life.

All my friends could drive so I spent all my weekends with my friends, I had a job and I was starting to feel like I was finding my passions like fashion, politics, women rights and volunteering. But then one spring day in March I was on a hike with my friends when my dad called me, and little did I know my life was about to change forever. A few weeks before this day he went to NYC to do work with a company, but we all just figured it was just a project he’d work on from home. But when he called me, he told me he was offered a job, his dream job, which meant we would be moving to NYC. I remember crying right after that. Tears of excitement because “OH MY GOSH NYC!!” but also tears of sadness because I would have to leave the life I was falling in love with behind. For the rest of sophomore year I went through phases of being really excited and then phases of being really sad and angry. But then things started to change for me. For most of High school I really struggled with self identity and self love. But after my trip to China in June, something clicked for me. I felt love for myself and for my surroundings like never before.  Experiencing another part of the world gave me the chance to see a side of myself I had never seen before, and gain a new perspective on life. I had a really clear vision of who I wanted to be. I’m forever grateful for that because it prepared me for the biggest change in my life, and it’s shaped the person I am today. With all that to say, The move has been HARD. It’s been hell to feel so isolated from my best friends. We decided to move to a suburb outside of the city in New Jersey for a better school, but things haven’t worked out at all. It’s almost like I’ve been in this transition period for three months and its been the toughest time of my entire life. But as we pack up and move to South Harlem NYC in just a few days, I have this beautiful feeling that my story is just about to begin, and that everything I just told you about my life was preparing me for this moment. This next chapter is a big one and I can’t wait to take you all along.

– Gracie