Sorry for the Wall of Text

A little backstory before we begin ✨

I moved around a lot as a kid. Which meant that for our family, “home” was always temporary.

It was a childhood full of new places, new people, and a quiet kind of loneliness.

My one constant? Books. Writing.

Fantasy worlds far away. Stories I could disappear into. Writing I saved on floppy disks (mostly fan fiction, if we’re being honest).

God, what I would give to find those floppy disks 😅

Me as a toddler

My dad worked for GE and to simplify it, his job was to bring electricity to rural places in Brazil. Which meant for us (the fam) we moved around a ton. I was homeschooled for most of middle school in the jungles of the Amazon. I took surfing lessons in the mornings in Rio de Janeiro before diving into my 7th grade textbook. Every week or so my mom would have to fax (yes fax) my homework back to the States so we could make sure that I was still “in the school system” for lack of better words.

Which is why I’m excited to be here, on Substack.

I had a blog back in 2017-2019 documenting my travels. Everywhere from Iceland to Thailand and then moving to New Jersey and documenting starting a family. In 2020 with the explosion of TikTok and then ultimately Instagram Reels, blogging quietly… died. Along with, arguably, everyone’s attention span.

And now we are here in 2026.

We all know social media is designed to be addictive. We know the algorithm doesn’t care about our nervous systems. We know enough now to feel a little weird about how much time we spend scrolling. I mean, Meta purposely makes social media addictive. In fact, did you know that Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health?

And here’s the irony, my day job is working in social media for a tech company.

I can’t tell you how tired I am 💀.

So this — this feels like a small rebellion. A return to something slower. More intentional. Less optimized.

I’m back to my first love in this life, reading and writing. I’m excited to tie together my body of work on my Instagram, my blog, and my podcast(s).

Think of this Substack as me sending you a very long text message. (The kind I’ll immediately apologize for with: “Sorry for the wall of text 🤪.” Does everyone do that? Or just me?)

A little about my life now:

I work full-time. I’m a mom to a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. My husband is a teacher. We live a very normal, middle-class life in a small house on six acres in western New Jersey.

I feel like that part matters.

Because sometimes it feels like every content creator lives in a giant, perfectly styled home, with one parent who doesn’t work outside the house, unlimited childcare, and a level of ease that feels… unattainable.

That’s not my life.

I’m trying to build a career and a family without losing my mind. I’m juggling a lot. I laugh through the chaos so I don’t cry. I’m learning, in real time, how to find joy in these messy, beautiful years.

This space is for the parents doing their best.

For the ones who are tired.

For anyone who wants something real, thoughtful, and a little unpolished.

If any of this resonates with you, you’ll feel right at home here 💖

Thanks for being here.

Let’s circle back… after bedtime 🌙