How bittersweet it is to close the chapter of a stage that I feel had only just started! There are so many quotes about change and growth that put into perspective how the end of things symbolizes the birth of something new and great. So though this parting comes with some trepidation on my part, I can’t help but still feel hopeful and look forward to what the future holds. When we take the closing of doors and try to view them rather as opportunities to learn and grow, we can see much better the different types of futures being offered to us. I think Dr. Seuss put it best when he said: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

After years of telling myself I was going to get back into old hobbies and good habits, I suddenly found myself with the time to actually do so. Reading was at the top of that list. I returned to books after years away to find that I wasn’t having the type of experience that I had expected. The material I used to love didn’t feel the same to me anymore, and I didn’t understand why. Was it the new life that was growing inside me, or maybe the simple fact that I just hadn’t read in so long? Perhaps I had changed without realizing it. Naturally, I went searching for the reader I used to be, and reread some of my favorite novels, hoping to stimulate those parts of my brain that loved them so much to begin with. 

Literature never comes without something to teach. In trying to rediscover my taste for reading, I found that the same exact print can offer completely different things to a person at different times in their life. As it always has, the power of the written word amazed me; it was profound and beautiful. That realization unlocked the thirst that made me want to understand literature differently. With all the spare time I had, I chose to share my amazement. From this, the idea for a hobby blog was born. And though it was never meant to be more than an online journal where I could share my thoughts on literature and have a place to write, I was still very grateful.

Writing about books brought me into conversations with other people who loved literature. Those conversations introduced me to authors, and those authors introduced me to an entire community I somehow hadn’t known existed. I began discovering independent writers and learning about the process of bringing a book into the world, the challenges that come with it, and just how much heart can go into a story that may never receive the attention it deserves. I read my first indie novel and fell completely in love with the experience. From there, I wanted more. I connected with an international author, had the pleasure of interviewing independent writers, and began learning about the people behind the books I was reading. And I kept thinking: How was I so in the dark about an entire community surrounding a subject I am so passionate about?

But that, I think, is the beauty of learning and growing. It’s never actually done. We can go into something thinking we know exactly what we love, only to learn that there is an entire world beyond what we have already experienced. Sometimes we return to something familiar expecting to reconnect with our old selves and instead discover that we have become someone new. And sometimes a little bit of extra time, an old hobby, or a simple decision to try something again can lead us somewhere we had no intention of going.

And so, we say farewell already. 

If you are reading this, it means that The BookishWorm Blog has closed and a new web-space has been introduced in its place. A place for lovers of literature to come together, for independent authors to be discovered and celebrated, and for me to continue exploring the written word in all the ways that have come to mean so much to me. Maybe that is what we sometimes misunderstand about endings. We imagine that when something ends, we are losing it. But sometimes an ending is simply the moment when we finally have enough perspective to see what that beginning was preparing us for.

If you are looking for a sign to take that leap you have been considering, let this be it. Allow new things into your life. Take another look at things you haven’t seen in a long time and find the new perspectives they have to offer you. Make room to grow. Wake up every day expecting and hoping to learn something new. And remember that as long as you keep your mind open you can always count on your knowledge expanding. You never really know where a beginning will lead you. Sometimes you just have to begin.

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

May you find the courage to close old chapters and the curiosity to begin new ones!

Paige Turner