Hello! It's been a little while...I lied, it's been a long while but guess who's back and fully recharged? Ms. Schuntel Alexis that's who :) I know you've probably been thinking...Where the heck is she? Why isn't she blogging? Why isn't she posting pictures? Why isn't she doing what her calling is? Well ladies & gentlemen, I'm finally ready to let you know all in on what I've been doing during my "blogging break" and my two months of unplugging.
I'd like to first say, that this is probably the most vulnerable and honest blog post that I've ever had to write and by far the hardest. I'm the person that wears a poker face no matter what; the person that doesn't let much of anything take me off my path or distract me but I'm incredibly human and my life is far from perfect. I've been purposely unplugging myself from anything that is toxic, negative and not healthy as well reevaluating my true purpose for the past two months. In my Beyoncé voice "I'm sensitive about my sh*t" and I like my blog to be a positive place for all those dealings, however I was carrying a heavy weight from life's inevitable twists and turns so I had to fall back for a little while so that I can get to the place I am today.
Although my social media presence has been existing in a limited form, I felt a disconnect after my trip from Iceland and have been trying to figure out why my enthusiasm for blogging was at a standstill. I loved fashion with my whole heart ever since I was a little girl and I was finally reaching plateau levels of where I saw myself but somehow I was not feeling fulfilled. Let me be the first to tell you, that is not a feeling that you ever want to linger...it can lead to depression and resentment. Prayer and having lots of "me" time helped me stay center and keep negativity far away. I have been going over and over in my head (overthinking is like my full-time job) every meticulous component in my life and dissecting whether or not this blog was even something I wanted to do. After six years of blogging, I wanted to give it all up and do what? I had no clue so I took some time away to just gain some perspective and focus on some goals that I put off for a very long time.
During this time I also poured my excess time into working both of my jobs, spending time with family, planning per usual, celebrating my friend's achievements to distract me from blogging. Honestly, being a support system for others makes me extremely happy and fulfilled (light bulb goes off!)...although my personal life felt like at times it was crumbling and it was me, myself and I against the world it was the celebrations and achievements of the people I loved and admired that comforted me and got me to this awesome place I'm at today. I think the pressures and expectations that I set for myself gave me the most anxiety and trying to "do it all" wore me out, I felt exhausted and overwhelmed so I decided to unplug for a little while and be selective with who I surrounded myself with and dedicating more time to focus on the mastering this thing called life. After turning 30 in February and having one of the best birthdays I could've only dreamed of...I thought to myself, what is next?! My passion for fashion had changed and I was totally grasping that reality and wanted to take a shift in perspective. The pressures of people telling me what I should do or "should be doing" kept me up at night. So, I decided that it was time to come up with my own plan and execute how only I would wanted to do it and not let anyone try to tell me what Schuntel should do. If there is anything I learned in the past two months is that you can't make everyone happy, not everyone will understand your journey and not everyone will be your cheerleader. Once you get over that hump, you are A-OK and you will see a lot clearly.
In all aspects of life, we must learn to be understanding and empathize with everyone's growth and not be judgmental because that is not our place. After my blogging anniversary passed in April, I started to do more cleaning up around my house and making sure that my home was always neat so that I can focus. Don't understand why? Well let me explain...I remember this guy who I dated for a very brief stint taught me something I could never forget. He was always super prompt to our dates and very organized when it came to almost everything. If you know me, you know I'm always the late arriver and I try really hard to be early but the way my life is set up.. I'm running at least 30 minutes late because I can't decide what to wear or I can't find something. So anyway, during one of our dates he told me that having a clean and organized home was the key to focusing, he had been reading a book about organizing your life and that's when it hit me. It was time to organize my life, I began with my closet first then organizing my calendar and making sure I carved out time to keep my room clean because it would be my sanctuary for focusing. I love my apartment in the city, it's spacious and it's wrapped in windows that I absolutely adore but the city noise is distracting at times and the huge windows have me gazing into the clouds thinking of my white-picket fence life when I'm 35 for hours lol...Keeping my thinking space clean and organized so that I could focus on my goals and planning the next chapter was integral to getting to the place I am today. Indeed, the unplugging, cleaning up more and staying organized has given me the push that I needed and longed for. I'm very happy to say that I'll be picking back up with blogging and so much more.
It's finally sunny and almost summer in the DMV area, so I'm super excited that with my creative juices flowing again and the weather being better that it's the perfect environment to work on some projects that I'm passionate about. This blog will definitely be more reflective of my passions beyond fashion and I'm excited to share more with you all! Thank you for your patience and understanding of my "blogger break", it feels so good to be back to blogging :)
*bows out gracefully*
