When I was much younger, I used to write stories. A lot of stories actually. Most of them were usually scribbled on scraps of paper, in notebooks and along the margins of class notes, snippets of characters' names and plots. Little windows into a different time or a different place -- and usually no more than a few sentences, a few paragraphs at most. Truth be told, I think I always had the intention of turning them into longer, more in depth stories -- the inklings of a novel, I told myself -- detectives solving crimes, a war hero returning home, two young lovers meeting for the first time. And yet, there they sat. Half started, on the brink of something bigger, like they were caught mid-sentence before someone unexpectedly cut them off with a wave of their hand.

I always felt a bit guilty for abandoning them, like I had failed them somehow.

Fast forward many years and I never really gave up on writing, I just happened to find that shorter formats are indeed my jam -- print journalism to be exact -- where I could dive into a different storyline, a different problem, a different perspective every day -- digest it and share it with the world (or in this case, the greater Reno/Sparks area). It was the exact writing pace I had craved all along -- daily, quippy and informational -- and at the end of roughly 500 words, it was time to move on to the next story.

There was one minor snag though. It was 2009 and we were in the middle of what would be the worst recession in recent memory for most folks. So what did I do? I pieced off my own little space of the internet and started a blog. On this very day. Seven years ago. I still remember that day too, sitting in my tiny studio apartment on West 11th Street near the University of Nevada, Reno campus, and punching in "This Time Tomorrow" as my blog name in the Blogger set up (because I happened to be listening to this song at the time). I didn't know what I wanted the direction to be. I didn't know exactly what I would share. I just knew it was mine and that whatever the years ahead, post college had in store for me, it would be an interesting exercise for me to stick with a "story" -- my story -- past 500 words.

Well. Seven years later, and here we are. And what a story it's been! This blog has been through some incredible numbers. Three different cities. Five apartments. Four jobs. Four and a half boyfriends (all at different times, thank you very much). One layoff. Two "I quits." And one big "I have no idea what's coming next, but I'm diving into this head first." Countless pinch me moments. And similarly, countless lows. Many tears. A lot of laughter. Way too many cameras to count. A few tripods. A lot of new friends. More uncertainty than I would like to admit. But always, a lot of hope and curiosity.

At the risk of getting sentimental again after last week's post, I just wanted to say, it's been an incredible ride with you all. And in a weird way, perhaps all those false starts of stories prepared me for this -- one bigger story that I would want to work on and share every day.

Of course, I still play around with the idea of creating a collection of short fiction stories. But that's another post, for another day.

OUTFIT DETAILS: Katie Ermilio dress (from a few seasons ago, but similar style here) // Valentino "Rockstud" heels // Celine "Audrey" sunglasses

Photos by my mom in Paris