Welcome to my Secret Project!

Surprise, I started a blog!

If you know me, hi friend 🙂 If you don’t know me, hey! My name is Marissa, and I am just a young twenty-something trying to figure ~it~ out.

I am an advertising associate by day, newly-minted blogger by night.

This is me by the way, (before my uniform became leggings and Aerie sweatshirts)

I am writing to you from my apartment in downtown Chicago, IL. Today is officially Day#: 71 of this nationwide lockdown, pandemic, quarantine shindig. I guess one of the blessings in disguise of being locked inside my apartment here is that I have A LOT of time to devote to dreaming up content for this thing. So it’s gonna be good, I promise 🙂

This blog has been an idea I’ve had ever since I moved here two years ago from my hometown of (a suburb of) Cleveland, Ohio.

Writing has always been a passion of mine, ever since I was little, I just have really loved to write. It has been so exciting to be working on this “secret project,” and to finally share it with the world! I studied abroad in Barcelona three years ago (I feel so old typing that), and while I was there, I created a travel blog to update family and friends on my travels/life experiences. I absolutely loved being able to share my life through words. So now, I will share my life through words again, but this time around, there will be less cool pictures of me frolicking around Europe.

So what does “The Roaring Twenties” mean?

For the sake of this blog and the things I will be sharing with you all, “The Roaring Twenties” refers to your twenties, the era of your life that is the most dynamic, scary, exciting, tumultuous, and daunting.

I began to think about how these last few years of my life have been absolutely insane, how I have grown so much, and all that life has thrown my way ever since entering the twenties.

I turned 20 in June of 2016. From then forward, I felt like life has gone into full throttle and has not stopped.

20 brought me new adventures, to the ends of another continent, the blissful dream that was Barcelona, and to the hustle and bustle of State Street in Chicago for my summer internship.

21 brought me to my senior year of college, my first “big girl” job search, a new relationship & to walking across the stage at graduation.

My alma mater, Miami University of Ohio!

Photo Credits: Ricardo Treviño

I finally scored my first job two days after my 22nd birthday. That summer, I moved to my new city (CHICAGOOO), I moved in with two roommates, who were complete strangers to me that I found on Facebook (spoiler alert: they turned out to be awesome!), and into a house I did not see until the day I moved in. From then on, there were a lot of firsts.

1. I moved to a new state for the first time.

2. I started my first job.

3. I began my first long distance relationship.

4. I got diagnosed with a chronic illness for the first time.

5. I went “home for the holidays” for the first time.

6. I lost a relative for the first time.

7. I went on a 2 week vacation with my boyfriend for the first time.

8. At 23, I moved into an apartment all by myself for the first time!

Whew that was a lot. Just one after the other. Rapid freaking fire.

If I am being completely honest here, all of these firsts, these changes in my life, have been tough to handle at times. It is exciting to think about moving to a big city and starting a new life….until you actually have to move to the city and start your life, then that’s where it gets scary. In the beginning of my transition into adult life, I found myself questioning everything, floundering, feeling really uncertain. Maybe I should have studied this, or that, or is this job right for me, or what was I thinking moving here on my own?!

So why write about it?

While it may not be apparent on mediums like social media, I have this feeling that there are other people out there in their twenties that are feeling the same/similar ways that I do; The uncertainty of not knowing what’s next, stuck in a world of constant comparing, feeling like you don’t know if you’re doing the “right” thing at the “right” time. Excited yet terrified by “the real world.”

And I want to talk about it!

I will call this blog a success if this resonates with literally one person and they think “Oh my gosh I feel the same exact way!” Or better yet, start a conversation about this time in life and the things that shape you as a young adult.

I am planning a bunch of cool posts, ranging from introspective life thoughts, to how to decorate your apartment on a dime. I’m also planning on doing some guest interviews of people I look up to and what they would tell their former “twenty-something self.” Moreover, the content on this thing will all have the same common denominator; The roaring freaking twenties.

If you’ve made it this far, and I still got you…hey. You rock. And let’s talk about the twenties.

-M