January 28, 2019 will always be a special day to me. That is the day I decided to share my voice with the world. That is the day I had been long awaiting. This is the day I launched Genuinely Jerica. I remember the days leading up to my launch like they were just yesterday. In my head I had jokingly thought about starting a blog for about 2 years. But it wasn’t until December of 18’ that I sat down and wrote my plan for starting my blog. Today we celebrate because of you! Because of you I have officially hit over 1,000 views of my website!
I remember telling my mom and sister that I was going to be starting starting a blog. If we didn’t talk every day I would totally scroll through our family thread to see what exactly they said…but that would take a lifetime. They asked me what I planned to talk about and honestly I wasn’t sure. A few months later and I still couldn’t give you a straight answer. I knew that I wanted to share my story with others. God had clearly told me that my calling was speaking to others. I had found that more and more I was sharing my life experiences in my journal. I would write until my hand was cramping and even then I couldn’t get out fast enough what was on my mind. When I looked back on my journal entries I thought to myself “what if I’m not the only one feeling this way?”. What if other women are lost and feel like they are alone? I began to dig into social media and creep those who I felt were searching for answers. Those women, who like me, weren’t sure of their place on this earth. Again and again I wondered what I could do that would make a difference. Que light bulb coming on….what if I turned my hand cramping- journal session into posts I can share with those women! By sharing my personal everyday experiences with these women they won’t have to feel like they are alone..
If I told you that this big aha moment was super exciting and like a disney channel movie where I jumped into random dancing and signing…I’d be lying. Even though I often dream that there was music playing in the background of major life events…like how cool would that be!? I was honestly super scared. As in my stomach start to hurt and I’m pretty sure I got goosebumps all over. The next few days my prayers were full of “God is this your plan?”, “I’m not sure I can do this”, “can you send me a big sign telling me this is what I’m supposed to do?”. I kept waiting for that huge sign from God. One night I was going through my blog prep list and noticed it was time to come up with a name. After a good ole google search and passing up the “generate a blog name” based on typing in words about yourself… I decided I’d rather hear what those close to me thought. I reached out to a few close friends and my boyfriend to come up with a few words that describe me. This is one of those moments I’m so thankful I never delete anything! Here are a few of the suggested blog names and words used to describe me:
-Just Jerica
-Your daily Dose
-A side of Sunshine
-Real Talk
-Diary of a Coffee Addict
How others describe me- loving, caring, goofy, talkative, intelligent, coffee
The blog names list was much longer than that but I just wanted to give ya an idea. One night I had a friend over for dinner and some good girl chat and brought out my list to get her input. If the name had * next to it that meant it was higher up on my list for a potential name and the more * meant the more I liked it. She was reading the list outload and commenting on the ones she really liked. When she came across Genuinely Jerica she read it outloud a couple times, which at that point I hadn’t heard it outloud, and I knew that was the winner. At that moment, the sign I had been waiting for was plain as day. God didn’t have to send flashing lights or scream “YES” to me. I had found my name that was going to give me my voice.
What ever brought you here, I’m so happy to have you! You are supporting my dream and my passion. Time is the most valuable thing to me and I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to be here and celebrating with me. I never once set a goal of how many likes, followers, or readers I was going to reach because that’s not what my blog is about. My blog is about providing empowerment for women. We are celebrating today because I’ve had the blessing of sharing this journey with more people that I could have ever imagined.
If this is your first time visiting my website-I can’t wait to get to know you! I want this to be a place where we can connect! Every time I get a notification that I’ve received a new LIKE or comment on a post my heart is flooded with JOY. To those of you who are here via my Instagram or Facebook Genuinely Jerica page- THANK YOU-THANK YOU for all of your support! I love making new friends so head over to my social media pages and let’s chat! It’s been an incredible couple months and I’m so excited to have each of you by my side on this journey.
Truly Yours,
Jer❤
Genuinely Jerica 