Was the shame too great? The pain too real? The distance to reach the image in my mirror too far?Ĭouldn’t I eat, drink, run, or otherwise keep pretending she wasn’t there? That part of me that peeks back when I’m putting my makeup on in the mirror every day? Was I not ready to look deeply into the mirror and see who or what was really there? And I wrote every single day, spilling my thoughts and feelings without form or function until small themes and concepts began to emerge. Every day, I read the words of other writers and my fellow apprentices. We were all feeling this way, I think excited to be learning a new style of writing, but nervous in the unfolding of our own personal growth.

I tried to grasp her with my clumsy words, but she’d slither back into the closet of my consciousness, leaving me feeling bewildered and uneasy.

I was not prepared to gaze into a mirror that was both cloudy and clear-a self that was bright but dark, broken but brave.Īs apprentices, we were tasked with reading elephant journal articles, and from that arose a reflection of myself that continued to resurface in the murky mirror of my awake life. It was the journey through the looking glass of self-reflection that was harder than I expected.

The experience was profound because while the logical side of me was absorbing this lesson, there was another subject, one not on the syllabus, that felt even more challenging.

When I joined the Elephant Academy apprenticeship program-a 16-week crash course in blogging for social media, journalism ethics, writing, and editing-I was immediately taken by the idea of reaching readers by sharing my personal experiences in a way that is both enlightening and beneficial. A post shared by Elephant Journal on at 5:24pm PST

I am brave in spanish