Help Wanted
Sometimes I hate the Internet.
Sometimes I think it turns us back into middle-schoolers who second-guess everything we present about ourselves and whether or not someone, somewhere might judge us for it as they sit scrolling and double-tapping through their phone.
I really hate that about the Internet. The inauthenticity.
But I also think the Internet can be really good sometimes, and I’m beginning to see that with this blog.
When I came up for the concept of That First Year last year, I debated whether or not I should even move forward with it. “What would people think?” was my main concern. There it was, that ever-present question bred by our like-obsessed culture: What would people think?
I’m glad I didn’t listen to that voice inside my head, because this blog has become my central passion project over the last several months. With the help of co-founder Kendall and photo-master/writer Juliette and our numerous fantastic writers, it’s slowly growing into something. Being able to write my own pieces and read others’ posts detailing the real, messy truth about life after college and how this transition can feel both like a bunch of everything and a bunch of nothing at the same time is something that I love about this blog.
As one of our writers put it in a recent email to us - “That's why I love this blog because it seems like we're all on the same page, which is really comforting.”
That’s it. That’s what I wanted when I came up with this idea: For us to be on the same page, the page where not everything is white-washed, perfect-lighting minimalist Instagram perfection, the page where it’s real and honest and maybe sometimes even a little bit raw. My hope has always been for someone to read something within a post somewhere on this blog that sticks, something that makes them stop and think, “Wait, I’m not the only one who feels this way?! I’m not the only one who feels directionless and confused and excited and terrified out of my mind by this whole thing called 'real life' that is all of a sudden thrust upon me?!”
That will always be my hope for this blog.
But we do need your help. We want to make this a place of stories, and in order to do that, we need more stories. Your stories.
Are you currently experiencing the ups and downs of that first year after college and have a story to tell? We want your story.
Have you already survived that first year and have a bit of wisdom that you learned over the course of it that you’d like to share? We want your story.
Know someone else with a fantastic story? Please, reach out to them; let them know we exist and that we want their story!
You build things not alone, but with a community. That’s what the Internet has the potential to be: an honest community that celebrates the beauty of life but also isn’t afraid to admit to the muddiness of it.
So we need your help.
Please feel free to reach out to us: info@thatfirstyearblog.com
- Ally
