Another February 5 has arrived, which means I'm now officially five years concussion-free! That's 1825 days in a journey that spans 3860 days, or 10.58 years, but who's counting? In each of my previous yearly reflections, there's been an overarching theme (1:...
Alright, video number two. Here we go. Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start a YouTube channel. And I did so by abandoning everything that I had planned of starting off well, with a nice laid out plan, high production value, just wanting to put in the...
Hello. My name is Jenelle and I'm not ready to start a YouTube channel. Starting a YouTube channel is something that I've wanted to do for many many years—to do it properly, to do it well—but today I’m throwing all of that out the window, and I'm just starting. It...
Another February 5th means another 365 days have passed since my most recent concussion four years ago. Since I like keeping track of things, that's 3495 days since concussion number one, and 1461 days since concussion number three, the aforementioned most recent one....
I’ve never known what I wanted to do for a career. After about eleven years of unsuccessfully trying to narrow things down, I realized that my list of interests would likely continue to compound over time along with my compulsion to constantly rotate through said...
It's been four weeks since I last sat down to write. Given the circumstances, I thought it best not to force myself to send out a newsletter the past three Tuesdays and felt good about that decision, further reiterating that it's all part of my journey. Thankfully,...
The last several weeks have been pretty difficult for me. I still haven’t gotten back on track from a seemingly minor neck setback, which means I’m always on edge wondering what my emotions will do or if I’ll be able to cope or even do anything on a given day. After...
Although it's been over three years since my last concussion, there are still a number of things that aren't yet back to normal. The hardest and most frustrating part has been and still is my messed-up emotions. This is due to a combination of hormones and/or physical...
After writing about my Batch Day last week I was not in the mood to do any of it yesterday, so I didn't. For some reason, I was able to channel my frustration into getting work done instead, so despite the day being unenjoyable, it was at least productive. I didn't...
Since October 28, 2019, Mondays have been my Batch Day. Don’t ask me why I know the date, but it’s a pretty big accomplishment to have a system of mine that has lasted longer than a couple of weeks. What is a Batch Day? Well, it's just my term for a day of the week...
I haven't really done much today. I haven't exercised, or done my neck stretches. I haven't done any work. I haven't showered. I haven't really made any good choices thus far. Why? Because I haven't felt like it. As much as I want to make good choices and be...
I care a lot about what people think of me. I know this shouldn't be the case, and I know that others' opinions of me certainly shouldn't influence my view of myself but I've always been quite insecure. Making things and sharing them with others, especially online for...
Productivity and efficiency are things that I enjoy trying to improve upon. I'm always looking for quick hacks and long-term systems to get things done faster and better, both because I like trying to improve all areas of my life, and because I'm well-versed in...
Today was supposed to be a productive day. I've been trying to get back into my routines after a brief hiatus and was optimistic that this week would be a profitable return to normal. But I struggled a lot today. The reason is not new, in fact it's one of the things...
A couple of weeks ago I talked about the fact that writing is hard. I knew this venture was going to be hard before I started, but the reason things hadn't been going as I had envisioned, and the reason it was taking me so long to write each week, was because I was...
In November of last year my cat was diagnosed with kidney disease. He got very sick and needed constant monitoring. This led to me hauling a futon into the living room to camp out with him for a few nights until his system settled down a bit. Those days and nights...
Writing is hard. This is something that I was aware of before beginning this newsletter practice, but I'm finding that things aren't exactly going as I had envisioned. One of the main reasons I started writing a newsletter was so that I could have a medium of...
This past October my parents left for what turned out to be a month to take care of my grandma. Admittedly, I was looking forward to having the house to myself. There are a number of factors that contribute to why I'm still living at home as I near the age of thirty,...
Today is February 5th, which I guess means it’s time for my annual post-concussion update. It has now been 3130 days since this journey began with concussion number one, and 1096 days, or three years, since concussion number three. Overall, there have definitely been...
This is my fourth attempt at writing a newsletter today. After spending twenty or thirty minutes on three separate topics, I got annoyed and switched gears. I wasn't annoyed at any of the topics; they're all topics I want to write about, but I just wasn't "feeling"...
When I was in the early stages of considering an email newsletter I was overwhelmed by the process. I spent hours researching different newsletter providers. I knew what the go-to ones were, but I wanted to make sure I found one that would give me the best bang for my...
On September 22, 2020, I published my first newsletter. To start, I didn't commit to any regular schedule, I just knew this was a habit that I wanted to cultivate. To my surprise, things went better than expected. Despite no commitment, I successfully wrote and sent...
Jon Acuff, in his book Quitter: Closing the gap between your dream job & your day job, reflects on his first blog that almost no one read and that didn't grow despite him showing up and writing for an entire year. "Looking back on it, I needed that year. I needed...
Yesterday was a pretty rough day for me. Over the past 8+ years, I've had a lot of pretty rough days and a lot of very rough days thanks to three concussions and a neck injury. It's taken a lot of time and a lot of hard work, but thankfully the rough days no longer...
I just spent the last half hour researching how to fix my computer. For the last few weeks, its start-up time has gotten longer and longer. Unfortunately, this isn't the first half hour I've spent on this problem. I've tried four different things so far and none of...
Last Tuesday night I sent out my very first email newsletter. This felt like such a big win for me. It's something that I'd been meaning to do for a while now, but, like so many other things, it just sat on my overflowing back burner. But I finally took action and did...
I did it! I started an email newsletter. This is something that's been on my to-do list for quite some time but I've finally found a way to do it that I think will work for me. What is that way? To write an email newsletter for me. That might sound counterintuitive...