A Year Of Looking Up
365 days. 67 Posts. Countless Drafts. Endless hours of brainstorming. I can’t believe it has been a year since I launched Always Looking Up.
I already reflected back on 2020, noting 20 things I learned in a year that no one will ever forget. Now, I want to reflect on a year of writing, a year of blogging. Always Looking Up is not the first blog I started. In the fall of 2013, I was preparing for my freshman year at Tulane University. I was going to be a student trainer for the school’s football team, majoring in political science. I started a blog entitled Short And Proud to “share a different view of the world we all live in”. I talked about shopping for jeans and shoes, being a little person, and the start of college life. I even tried vlogging and had a weekly inspirational series where, by sheer coincidence, the first person I talked about was my best friend Michaela. I stopped writing for Short And Proud around April of 2014. There was no official announcement, I just stopped writing.
When I launched Always Looking Up, I thought I would focus solely on fashion. I commented on the Oscars, Fashion Week, and shopping (mis)adventures. I thought it would be a platform for me to advocate for adaptive and accessible fashion, and it is. But it has become so much more, it has allowed me to become so much more.
For years, on social media, I would remain reserved, not saying anything that could be seen as too controversial or too vulnerable. Not anymore. With each post there was less and less trepidation. I found myself speaking with a voice that was louder, bolder, more open and more vulnerable. I found a voice, my voice, that I am no longer too timid to use. I must admit that I am most proud of the posts where I had a dialogue with friends and family. Each conversation was a learning opportunity for myself and, hopefully, my readers.
What’s next for me on this blog? I have a few things in the works that I’m very excited about. I still plan to write about fashion, advocate for adaptive and accessible design, and open up about what it’s really like being a little person. In one of my first posts I promised myself and I promised you, my readers, that nothing would be off-limits. That promise still stands.
One of my favorite movies, perhaps my favorite movie, is Apollo 13. In one of the early scenes Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, is looking up at the moon. He is looking up at the moon and wondering when it will be his turn to leave his footprints on the lunar surface. Whether you are an astronaut who has been to the moon twice or an aspiring change maker with a blog, it is human nature that we look up, to see high we can soar or how far we can go. When you look up, the possibilities are endless. As a little person, I am always looking up at the world around me. I look up at people who inspire me, heights I want to reach. How high will that be? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
