Five Things About Melissa
As Lo said last week, we are so excited to become a bit more vulnerable, open, and real here are the mag and share posts that are thought-provoking, raw, and full of hope and love. Before things get really real, I wanted to share five things you probably don't know about me. Here is a link to Lo's 5 things post from last week- it's such a good read!I love to cookWhen I started dating Hamilton, I did not know how to cook. I remember the third or fourth time we hung out, I told him that I wanted to make us dinner. I don’t know what caused me to say that, because as stated before, I did not know how to cook! I knew the typical basics, but pretty close to nothing. I’ll never forget what I made (chicken + sundried tomatoes with pesto over cous cous), that experience in the kitchen (I turned on music and started to create), and how much Hamilton loved the dinner. I thankfully had him stay in the other room while I cooked, because the food was great, but the process was not the prettiest. That night was a huge turning point for me. Since then, I have refined my cooking methods, cooked for us and others countless times, tried so many new things (thank you, Pinterest) and developed a major love for creativity in the kitchen. Food is such a great way to bring people together, and I am so thankful that the Lord knew I would love cooking, and used that moment (in November of 2013) to make it happen.
Writing poetry brings me joyI went to St. Mary’s College in Maryland and majored in English, with a focus on creative writing my senior year. The poetry class I took that year was hands-down my favorite, but even before then I was jotting down poems whenever a thought came to mind. For some reason it comes pretty naturally to me, and for that I am so thankful. It's one of those things that I don't talk about a lot, but I'm not really sure why. I guess I have always seen it as a personal or private hobby, but I want to share it more, whenever possible. As of lately, it's my personal goal to journal much more and this includes making free time to write some poetic lines. I have recently started a toxic-free lifestyleI am way late to this game and know that this is not new news, but for about the past five months I have been getting rid of toxic beauty and home products. Besides my Bobbi Brown bronzer, all of the products that I use now are “safe” and don’t contain the most dangerous toxins that are unfortunately common in come beauty and home-care products. Hamilton and I completely purged my apartment and his house, and replaced the items with brands like seventh generation, dr. bronner's, mrs. myers, and I replaced makeup items with brands like w3ll people and beautycounter. I recently had an “aha” moment thanks to Hamilton (he has been living this way for a while now) and a holistic health coach from Annapolis, Maria, who spoke at our yoga studio during a special detox class. I will go into all of the details in a separate post, but basically I realized that I was causing my body so much harm by exposing it to chemicals that are in conventional products that we use everyday. My mom and I are super close I am so thankful to have such a close relationship with mom! She is definitely my best friend and we talk a lot (like a lot) and live 20 minutes apart, so I see her (and my dad!) pretty regularly. My mom has such a kind, loving, and warm spirit and it is something that I always try to have and share with others. I also pray that I will be like her when I am hopefully a mom myself. I always look forward to seeing her and I can always count on her to answer my calls and texts, which is something that I definitely do not take for granted.
Yoga is one of my favorite thingsHamilton and I started to do yoga back in January and it has been the best nine months of my life. I can’t even think about what life was like before yoga! A big part of that is the studio we go to- Annapolis Power Yoga- and the amazing instructors there. The owner, Emily, is so great and I give her a lot of credit for my passion and love for yoga. What is so cool about her studio is that they offer the traditional yoga (Vinyasa), but they also offer cool versions that incorporate cardio and strength building, like buti yoga and XY sculpt. I think about this often when I talk to people about yoga- the three best things about it (and why I am totally hooked) is that one-yoga brings me so much joy and peace, two-it’s an amazing workout, and three- it’s a great way to get rid of toxins.