i've been on social media since i was super young.  i'm talking like 12 years old, back when everyone was figuring out what the internet even was.  i loved it!  i never realized how truly shy i am in real life and how much easier it felt just to share online.  i could be who i wanted to be, share what i wanted and keep private what i didn’t want to share.  i never wanted anyone in real life to know i had a social media presence.  not that i went out of my way to hide it but i wouldn't ever talk about it.  i guess it didn't matter much back when i was younger and was online just for fun, playing games or making endless profiles.  but once i started blogging and sharing parts of me i wouldn't share naturally,  i would feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety if my two worlds, my online world and my real life world, ever collided

in 2011, i started a blog that was first called ralizabeth.   i’m so bad at selecting names and just went with my name since i couldn't come up with anything.  i wanted to start blogging immediately and didn’t want selecting a “good" name to delay me from blogging any longer than it already had.  the name quickly changed to tomorrow is our day, since i began documenting my new life with my then boyfriend (now husband), junior.  we began having your usual, young relationship difficulties and i just didn’t feel right sharing about us on social media.  the thought of breaking up and having my whole online presence be about our relationship just didn't sit well with me.  that’s when i realized this blogging journey is mine and mine alone.  i shouldn’t be sharing my story with someone else.  i should just be sharing my story.  spoiler alert, we worked through our difficulties and today, i love that man more than ever before, but this journey is still just mine.  it feels good to know that and to accept that and to have a partner that encourages that.  i would not have this blog today without his constant support and dedication to my projects.

in 2015 i created oh, she’s lovely.  again, a name that i rushed into.  it never quite felt like me but rather this persona that i had taken on.  i had this burning desire to start new and this was what i came up with.  it was then that i started taking blogging more seriously and actually allowing my two worlds to combine, slightly.  i still wasn't advertising it but i also wasn't hiding it.  most of my real life people were still in the dark.  i realize now that i was ashamed to say i loved fashion and clothes and hair and beauty.  i thought working in the legal field gave me street cred and made me worthy of respect, not being this fashionista that i so desired to be.  besides, i’m no fashion expert.  i don’t know the history of fashion and i didn’t major in fashion in school.  i don't know what i'm talking about or doing, anyway.  boy was i wrong! 

actually, i still become extremely uncomfortable when people talk about my blog or instagram in real life but i’m working through it.  most people that i know in real life know what i do online.  and for the first time ever, i speak about it proudly.  i truly am proud of what i do.  what my husband and i do together.  since feeling this overwhelming gratitude for this space and all the previous online spaces that i had, i knew i needed something new.  i needed something me.  and so i decided to go with my name, ralizabeth, just like it was when i first started this entire blogging journey. i like to think things came back full circle.  

i honestly feel like a new person IRL (in real life for those not up to date with internet talk) and so i’ve been thinking about rebranding for months.  coming up with blog names is just not my strong suit so i sat on the idea for a long, long time.  did i want a new blog altogether?  just a new name?  a new name and new layout but same blog?  i flooded my mind with all of these unanswered questions, as an overthinker like me usually does.  ones that, knowing me, i’d never ever get around to answering.  so i just decided to wing it.  i bought a new domain and changed my blog banner and here i am just diving back in.  sharing what i feel like sharing, like i’ve always done, except with a little more pride and passion.  a little more intention.

if you’ve been following since day one, thank you.  if i’ve picked you up somewhere along the way, thank you.  and if today is your first time here, thank you.  thank you for just being here as i navigate my way through life and share the little bits and pieces i feel like sharing.  most times the highlight reel, sometimes a little deeper.  but thank you for being here as i grow into the woman i am becoming and as i stumble along the way.  

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photographs by blissfulkaos