Hi there! I assume that of you’re reading this blog post that you’re wondering what its about. Well, sometimes I feel as if my life gets caught up in various situations and I forget to do the simplest of things. Like introducing myself. It’s funny because I know that I have a larger group of people that follow my journey but, I don’t recall a time where I really took the time to share who I was as a person, a student, a lover, and a young business women. In fact there are many faces and roles that I play in my life, but only a few know all of them. Most just know the me that posts pretty pictures on social media. So this post is my introduction, to myself and my life.

To be quit frank, I really am not sure what to write in this post. To start my name is Erika and I am 18 years old. My story has never been your “average” story. In fact there is not a single factor in my life that is “average” or “normal.” I’ve always been different, my life has always been different. Having a different path than most in life used to scare me… like a lot. But I’ve grown to embrace the fact that Im not your average 18 year old girl.

I guess my story starts when I was about 8 year old, this was one of the best & worse times for me. It’s when I discovered my love for photography. I use to steal my moms old film camera and take SO many pictures… she got so mad at me for wasting all her film on pictures that you couldn’t even make out!! haha! It’s also the time where my parents started drifting from each other, and soon that drifting became more permanent. My mom, my sister and I moved out of what we called our “main house” and moved into our cute little guest house. My parents needed space from each other, which never bothered me when I was younger, I was just mad that I was forced to share a pullout sofa bed with my sister! It wasn’t until my freshman year in high school where we “officially” moved out. In fact I was the one who made it happen. When you see two people that have fallen out of love, its hard to see them as they once were. Don’t get me wrong I love my parents, but I had a gut feeling that God had different plans for them at that point in their life. So I told my mom that we were gonna pack up our stuff and take a year to just breathe.

Needless to say I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of my parents divorce, because no divorce is a good one. It was nasty, there was a lot of crying and weak moments involved. But the whole time I was never, not once, mad. Like I said I love my parents and I just wanted to see them happy again. That experience made me a part of who I am today, it taught me things about what family meant to me. It taught me how to make hard decision… like really hard. In my junior year of high school, I decided to move back in with my father at the house that I grew up in because things became too hard to handle and I knew that I needed to focus on my school work. And moving back into a house that had SO many memories, both good and bad, was HARD. But I told myself time after time that I knew this was what was right for me at that time. In my head moving in with my dad was only temporary, just a small amount of time and then things would be okay. It was only about a few months in that I went to go visit my mom, as I regularly did, and she faced me with one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to not only make, but make peace with. She asked me if I would give her my blessing to move back to her home… Philadelphia. Now my mom was my BEST friend, and I was in the hardest year of high school and trying too juggle everything else in my crazy life. How was I supposed to be okay with my mom moving 200 miles away? But for some reason, when she asked me that question, my first emotion wasn’t that I was mad or sad. But I was actually okay. I gave her my blessing and she is now living happily in her home town caring to her family and we talk almost every day. She’s still my mom and that will never change.

That decision put a lot of stress on me after the fact, I’m not gonna lie I struggled making peace with it. But once I did, God opened SO many more doors for me. As soon as I let go of all the resentment and anger towards my life, things changed. 

First, I became closer to God, I was finally able to build a relationship with my father that is only filled with good memories, and I was able to take a hold of my dreams, let go of everything else in my life and make them a reality. So am I okay with the fact that I’m not normal? Yes. Most 18 year old girls are planing there college careers, while I am dreaming and planning my life career. Is it normal that I live with my boyfriend, Josh? No. And I know it’s not normal, and I know that A LOT of people judge me and think I’m so stupid for it, but to be honest, I don’t care. I’ve never cared about what people think of me. I remember when my “friends” made fun of that fact that I was chasing my dreams to be a photographer. But instead of letting it get to me and fight back, I supported them. In any endeavor or moment in their lives when they needed it. And you know why? Because the Lord put me on this earth to be me, and I am not the type of person to treat others like they’ve treated me, no matter how bad or cruel, or mean.

So if you’re a trooper and still reading this ridiculously long introduction to myself. Just know that it’s totally okay to not be “average” or “normal” EVERYONE has their own path, and no two paths are a like. Never settle for less, never compromise who you are or what your style of thing are. Push forward in life, no matter how hard because I promise things DO get better.

So in that case… now you know the heart behind Erika Lynn.