This is ME, This is WHY
Strangers think I’m quiet, my friends think I’m outgoing, my best friends know that I’m completely insane!
If you have read the “10 facts about me” post, you pretty much know all there is about me. Yup, I can pretty much sum me up in 10 facts. I actually hate writing about myself, I never quite know what to say, I’m definitely a behind the scenes kind of girl. With me it really is “what you see is what you get”. So, where do I start with this kind of thing?
This is ME
Hi everyone! My name is Monique and I am 25 years old. I was born and bred in Gauteng, Kempton Park (more specifically the “haunted hospital” – well born there, not bred there). I first became a mom at the young age of 21 to my then beautiful 7 year old bonus daughter and handsome little 10 year old bonus son. I call them my bonus children because 1. I hate the word “stepchildren” or “stemom” it reminds me of Cinderella and they are not worth any less than Aryan and I am also not evil and 2. I really won the lottery with them, they are my bonus blessings and I still don’t know what I did to deserve them in my life. They are also a bonus brother and sister to Aryan. They have taught me so much about life and being a mom but most of all they have shown me that giving birth is not the only way of becoming a mom.I know I am far from perfect, in fact I feel like I fall short 90% of the time, and the other 10% I know I fall short, but they and I, know that I am giving it my best, my all. In May 2017 I became a “first time mommy” to my very own little wildling – Aryan Connor (I say first time, because even though I have older children, I never had the privilege of experiencing their baby and toddler stages – but I am blessed enough to experience them with my own little blessing for the very first time). He was the missing piece to our puzzle and finally our little family and my heart, is complete… for now 😉 (And No I am not pregnant).
I am a typical introvert – shy and quiet – and you will often find me hiding behind the covers of a book or pen and paper, but I have a big heart, wide shoulders and I am a great listener. Once I am comfortable, I’ll reveal my crazy side and although I struggle to let people in, once you’re in I will stand with you through every storm and be your most loyal friend.
I love to learn, and I am definitely an adventurous person. I call myself a “plain Jane” and you will most likely bump into me wearing jeans, a tracksuit top, sneakers and my hair up in a pony. I am a professional Judoka (or should I say former judoka) and Judo coach with a degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology as well as Ministry. I love fitness and also did my fair share of athletics, marathons and working out but my mom – bod is still on a break since I haven’t found a gym where the child minders don’t bring Aryan to me during my warm-up quite yet.
I love God and He is the foundation on which I try to build my life and everything in it. He has been faithful to me and I do try to be His faithful servant – I am not blind to my own faults and I don’t claim to be a perfect Christian, I’m only a girl who knows that I need Jesus.
That’s me in a few paragraphs, now let’s get to the WHY
This is WHY
Our Instagram Page
Letters To My Wildling started off as a personal Instagram Page for Aryan. When Aryan was born I soon realized that I had little to no friends left and I felt alone, overwhelmed and lost. I needed somewhere to vent, someone to talk to, so instead I decided to write. I also wanted a platform where I could share everything – my feelings, Aryan’s accomplishments, my motherhood journey, and all of our adventures for Aryan to look back on when he is a bit older but it just didn’t feel like Facebook was the appropriate platform for this, so I decided on an Instagram page.
I soon realized that Instagram was way more than just a social media platform as I met new like-minded moms, moms who knew and understood what we, what I, were going through and formed new friendships all over the country. I have formed more real friendships with moms on Instagram and received more support from them than I have from “friends” in my own life – and I still can’t wait to meet all of you. It’s true – it takes a village and I found my village through a social media platform. As Aryan grew older – and cuter – I decided that I wanted to write him “personal” letters about specific stages and phases that we go through together and that’s when “Letters to my Wildling” were born. This was the first name change that felt like the perfect fit for us. It described our photos, our posts and our life journey to the T – because I really do see each photo as a letter to him about our journey together, regardless of the writing underneath it.
Our Blog
One evening as I were typing my heartfelt letter on Instagram, pouring out my heart, Instagram rudely interrupted my thoughts as I exceeded the amount of characters they allow, and I had to make two separate posts. The frustration increased as more and more of my posts exceeded their character count and I couldn’t quite express and say all that I wanted to, and that’s when and why our blog was born. I have always had a passion for writing and I love sharing our finds, challenges, accomplishments and adventures with other moms, but mostly with Aryan. I know that he is still so young and that he probably won’t remember any of it so our blog is also my way of preserving these memories for him and that’s why you will see that my blog posts usually include quite a bit of photos and details. Also, a child, no matter how old, will never quite understand everything from a parent’s point of view so this will also be a way of showing him our journey through my point of view – a different perspective.
Our Facebook Page
I am very privileged to be able to work from home most of the days which allowed me to keep Aryan home with me until he showed signs of readiness for playschool at about 16 months. He was, and still is, a busy busy boy and in order to save my sanity and keep him stimulated I went on a hunt for a fun, exciting routine that will do both. I knew and understood that routine is necessary for him to thrive and develop optimally, but I also needed something that were sustainable, with a dash of surprise and excitement for every day. Once I found our perfect routine, I subscribed to our very first subscription box (Aryan was 5,5 months old at the time) and I started working on a monthly theme, with an exciting surprise for each day. Not long after I saw that other mommies were also struggling with keeping their babies stimulated and entertained throughout the day and since I were already searching for and planning activities for Aryan and taking photos and videos of the activities we do together, I decided to share our activities with other work-at-home and stay-at-home moms. And that is how our Facebook page was born.
So there you have it – the ME and the WHY in a nutshell.
