Happy 1st Anniversary to The Single Diaries!
As we commit to year 2, we unveil our manifesto… the words we live by, the summary of our work, the mission we strive to carry out post by post. Twelve months flew by, so we simply want to say Thank You. Thank you for reading, for supporting our stories, and for inspiring us to leap. Every. Single. Day.
We have big plans for our second year and can’t wait to share them with you as they unfold. Until then, read on for a look back at our favorite moments from the first year of living our mission, and share your favorites with us too.
Jen: I learned to embrace fear.
One of my first posts was A Single Girl’s View on Learning to Embrace Fear in which I shared how afraid I was of starting The Single Diaries. For over a year I brainstormed ideas for the site but remained fearful of putting myself out there, open to judgment. It took overcoming that fear and sharing my ideas with Catherine to finally make a move. It takes baby steps, one post at a time, to grow comfortable with sharing my thoughts online. After 12 months of posting I know that I am capable of embracing that fear and no longer letting it hold me back.
Catherine: I expanded my circle of friends.
I feel lucky to have a solid core group of friends who were automatic first readers. Once we were up and running, though, I was surprised (and continue to be) whenever a friend I haven’t spoken to in years mentions to me that they follow The Single Diaries. I’m even more amazed when we hear from ladies we have yet to meet. It’s opened conversations and connections we wouldn’t have recognized otherwise. I feel honored to be part of the start of a community of women cheering each other on and sharing stories and lessons that we didn’t know we had in common.
Jen: I loved meeting our Single Girls.
Catherine perfectly summarized our site’s mission in Definition of the Single Girl: “What I’ve come to learn is that your relationship with yourself is at the core of every other relationship.” Our mission has really come to life for me by getting to meet our Single Girls. Every time I sit down to do an interview or reach out to a new contributor, I am reaffirmed that we are on to a big idea. Though each of the women who has been a part of the site has a different story to share, their strong sense of self binds them to our community of Single Girls. They are a constant source of inspiration, and I hope that Catherine and I can count ourselves among them.
Catherine: I found creativity and healing.
Both of our lives are very different today than when we launched (as an example, Jen and I both changed jobs and moved out of our apartments in the course of the last year). Jen approached me with this project at a time when I was desperate for a creative outlet. As the year went on, I started to find the hidden lessons in almost every situation… at first because I needed material, then because I was merely taking our advice about the importance of reflecting. The Single Diaries gave us the courage to change what wasn’t working. It helped me face different obstacles head on and, through writing regularly, it helped me start to heal.
We would love to hear from you on our “birthday.” What are some of your favorite posts from our first year? Which part of our manifesto would you include in your personal mission statement?
