Intro to My Substack

Authentic Words

Hi friends!

My name is Grace (or Gracie), and I’m so excited you’re here! I recently graduated from Liberty University with a degree in creative writing, and I’m currently in the thick of job searching. Recently, since I’ve had more time on my hands, I’ve wanted to start writing and sharing my authentic words with you.

Throughout college, I primarily wrote for school or in my journal, but I never shared much of what I wrote. I now feel more led to impact people with my writing and share my thoughts, ideas, and hopes with others.

Writing began to have a powerful grip on me in my freshman year of high school. I remember sitting through English class answering the prompts given to me by my teacher and finding so much joy and freedom in expressing myself through written words. Throughout high school, I was a ravenous reader, and I eagerly wrote in a journal almost daily. I decided I wanted to get a degree in writing because I wanted to impact people in the way other writers have impacted me.

There are few things I find more enjoyable than being able to read a book about someone’s experiences and get a sneak peek into their life. Through reading, I’ve come to know and love authors such as Anne Bronte, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Leo Tolstoy, Elizabeth Gaskell, and many more. These authors have profoundly impacted my life and my relationship with God and others, and I hope to do that for other people as a writer.

If I’m being honest, it’s a little scary to publish my words for the world to read. Writing for me is a beautiful, messy, emotional, electrifying process where I seek to better understand myself, God, and the world around me. I’m more vulnerable when I write, in a way that I’m not in person or when I speak. I need to write as I think, as I feel, and as I live. Which means, you’ll be getting my authentic words, and that’s a bit frightening to me, but it’s also part of what makes it worth reading for you.

I’m planning to share with you a bi-weekly post that will include a poem, a reflection on something I’m learning, a prayer, a book recommendation, an observation I’ve had, a short story, or something I’ve personally experienced. As an introspective 22-year-old, I find I typically have something that I’m experiencing or learning that I’d love to write about and share with you.

I hope this is a place where you can be encouraged to breathe a little more slowly, enjoy the little things more deeply, and be uplifted with whimsical, thought-provoking, and edifying words.

Yours truly,

Grace Sophia

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