How I Found Confidence Through My Blog

I’ve always been passionate about writing and started song writing at a very early age. I even recorded songs in high school. The power of the written word and the arts has always had a huge impact on my life, and I rely on these to remain optimistic and motivated in pursuing my life goals.

How I Found Confidence Through My Blog

After high school, I enrolled in the Professional Writing program at York University in my home city of Toronto, and I have never felt so disconnected from my passion. I ended up leaving the program after one year. I was frustrated with my professors and their assistants for continuously tearing apart the heart and soul of my favourite authors, their work and my professional and creative writing styles. And I’m sure they were quite frustrated with my stubbornness to stay true to what I had to write and say aloud.

I realized that another passion of mine was community development and empowerment. I was constantly on the go traveling the world volunteering and working for different international organizations and community development projects. At this time, in 2013, my blog Sunshine & Raine materialised. The name came from my last name, Raine, and its opposite, the gorgeous sun. Together, the name reflected the two sides of travel. The positives, negatives, ups and downs of traveling, story-telling, honest truths regarding life as a traveler, a nomad and a humanitarian: these are the things that inspired Sunshine & Raine.

I want to convince other women that sometimes, the only thing that is holding us back is fear, not necessarily the thing in front of us. It is merely the idea of the unknown that is causing fear to step in.

I was extremely nervous about how to go about starting my blog. I started by committing myself to writing a post every two weeks about whatever was on my mind, which tended to be topics every millennial can relate to: financial struggles post-school, economic opportunities, my community, pet peeves. Then it grew into something beautiful and mature as I continued to grow, personally and in my writing. Three years later, it is a large collection of travel stories, motivational posts, accounts of challenges and how I overcame them, and community development projects that I’ve worked on around the world. I write often about female empowerment and positive female leadership stories, because this is what inspires me and inspired my Toronto-based non-profit organization, Raine Network.

Female and youth leadership, as well as women’s economic empowerment, is important to me and is something that cannot be accomplished without support from men. These issues cannot be accomplished without equality. This is something I promote heavily through my organization and through my blog when recapping projects I’m working on. I’m also a big believer that confidence is a huge driving factor, and that we need to teach our girls confidence so they feel good about their accomplishments, their bodies, themselves and asking and taking the things they want and deserve when they work hard for them.

How I Found Confidence Through My Blog

I also write about different opportunities that I believe should be marketed to female travellers to try, which is why I have written many pieces about being a female in India. I want to convince other women that sometimes, the only thing that is holding us back is fear, not necessarily the thing in front of us. It is merely the idea of the unknown that is causing fear to step in.

What gets me in my writing mode is being surrounded by creative people. It is a huge challenge for me to think: “Today I will sit and write something”. I need to be in a public space with people and chaos so that I can observe, and bounce their energy off of me. Those are the times when I write the most, and often the best pieces.

I then take my quiet alone time to reflect on what I have written, and make any editorial changes. Some of my favorite writing scenarios include sitting by the beach in hot, hot weather, drinking coffee outside on a patio (or a beer or two!) and in transit. I love writing at the airport.

I love to write about confidence, and I actually found mine through my blog. I now have this outlet through which I can release my thoughts, ideas and stories to share with people. That is what writing is now for me, and is and has been a great place for me to reflect on how far I’ve come as a writer, a storyteller and as a woman. It has become my “girl power” sanctuary.

 

How I Found Girl Power Through My Blog. Have you found girl power through blogging? We want to hear about your adventures. Email [email protected] for details.