Being Real // burning youth

It is ridiculously hard to be real on the internet. 

Before you jump to conclusions, no, I'm not a robot, or a creepy man, or a serial killer pretending to be a real "Katie Grace on the internet."

I'm just me. A sixteen year old girl who has dreams too large for her own good. Who has the ability to cry too easily, eat a whole pizza, back up into a garbage can, and get bad grades in her schoolwork.

But in my head, I'm Katie Grace. She is the writer who writes 20,000 words in one day, who has it all together, who writes blog post after post and novel after novel. 

The sixteen year old me fails at deadlines. Who looks at the tasks on her to-do list and the bags under her eyes and the unreasonable time blinking on the clock and just sighs. 

Katie Grace won't stop. The clock is always ticking. There's always things to be done, and she will continue like her energy is limitless. Bigger goals. Smaller deadlines. Do things faster, better, go, go, go. 

But which one is really me? 

Both. Both are me. I'm Katie Grace -- the sixteen year old girl who loves to write, but is unsure of her ability to actually do it well. 

I'm the girl who blogs a lot and it's working out well for her, but she constantly fears that she will someday run out of material. Or that people will become uninterested.

I'm the girl who writes about doing so much, but not about the struggle and the stress to get that done.

I've been thinking about this for awhile, now. How to balance the two and be real without sharing every part of my soul.

And then the fabulous Kate emailed me about a blog project. A group blog. A blog that writes about real things. Real struggles. Real feelings. A perfect place where I could share my real thoughts and feel like they belong. I haven't written anything on there yet, but I will. And so I thought I'd let you know about it.

Here is a snippet of the lovely mission statement Kate wrote up --

we are the young ones

the emotional ones

the restless,

the drifters,

the dancers,

the artists,

the midnight cereal eaters,

and drivers of dirt roads that got lost

between the trees.

we are the up all nighters,

with the wide eyes,

and the dreams that won't call it quits.

[keep reading...]

So I guess this post was a mixture of a lot of things -- something I've been thinking about, self promo, pushing you over to a blog where fifteen amazing minds have joined together to create this beautiful anthem. I hope to see you over there. <3 

[burning youth blog link]

// katie grace

Can you relate to the struggle? 

Hope to see you over at burning youth. <3

(also, congrats to Mary H. and Anika for winning the giveaway!)