Breathing Into Firsts: My Journey Back to Personal Writing
Embracing Vulnerability, Joy, and Community in My Car-Free Life
Hi, I’m Karyl. I’m new to Substack and shared my first story about my Car-Free-Full-Life on the platform last week. Firsts give me butterflies — they are exciting but cause me to hold my breath when I should instead stop and breathe.
It has been many years since I wrote from a personal place. While I love to travel and journal about my experiences, I seldom share my journal entries beyond sending a few texts to friends and family back home. I am an introvert, and by the end of my workday, I often don’t have the energy left to put myself out there online. While I enjoy public speaking and meeting new people, I need time to recharge alone afterward — often reading, writing, or taking a walk outside — to recalibrate my social scales.
I am a former practicing attorney who now manages technology adoption for a large law firm. I focus on organizational communication and change management related to new hardware and software, information security, and technology-related policies, procedures, and best practices. I write frequently, but most of my writing is technical and for business purposes.
I want to rediscover what it feels like to write solely for the pleasure of writing, to reconnect with my writing roots. In school, I wrote poems, music, and a play. I majored in English and Communication Studies as an undergraduate and immersed myself in theater and forensics. As a graduate student, I wrote about the importance of personal narrative in scholarship, inspired by the power of words to change the way that people see the world.
Later, as a lawyer, personal writing took a back seat to my career. I enjoyed advocating for my clients and telling their stories, but I fell out of the habit of sharing my own.
Even when I stopped practicing law and could help clients with storytelling unburdened by a pending legal crisis, my focus remained on editing rather than writing. I found a niche as a consultant, encouraging lawyers, nonprofits, and other small businesses to differentiate themselves by incorporating personal narratives into their communications. Today, I continue to help others identify and communicate their stories in a large law firm setting. In addition to simplifying technical jargon so that audiences more easily understand essential messages, I incorporate context so the audience can see themselves as part of a larger narrative and, on the best days, as a hero on a mission for their clients.
While I find my current work meaningful, after I finish my workday, I want to write merely for the joy of writing. I want to stay up late chasing words, trying to pin them down before they fly from my mind. I want to wake up and immediately grab my pen or keyboard to capture an idea before my to-do list for the day crowds out my dreams. Then, I want to channel some of that creative energy, take a leap, and share my journey with this community of inspiring and skilled writers and artists pursuing their craft.
My goal is not perfection; it is vulnerable persistence. I am embarking on a year-long quest to write a few posts each month and to share posts from others that move me in between.
I chose a Car-Free-Full-Life as my muse because the decision to lead a car-free life back in May 2017 has shaped the person I am and want to become. I will write about challenges I’ve faced and fears I still struggle with, but I will also write about the joys I’ve discovered — the travel, the sunrises, the wind on my face as I ride my bike like I am 10 years old again, and the community I’ve found.
Over the next year, I want to continue expanding my community, one post at a time, with a few posts each month. To follow the story and join me on this journey, subscribe — it’s free.
I would also love to get to know you and what prompted you to pause as our paths crossed. Are you curious about or already living a car-free life? Are you interested in reading stories about pursuing a full life? Are you on a joyful quest to rediscover your writing roots? Are you too breathing into a first?
I enjoy meeting people while exploring the world around me. Consider this my hello as we pass each other along these virtual streets. I look forward to your reply — in whatever format is most comfortable for you — comment, message, like, or share.
For now, I’m wishing you joyful butterflies and taking one breath at a time.
Karyl