A brief introduction

Welcome, friends!

You have stumbled upon the blog for my blooming passion project, a small yoga and wellness business under my own name, Andrea Russell. The phrase "passion project" may have already clued you in to the nature of the eventual business, and particularly to this writing space I've carved out in my own little corner of the internet--both will serve as the overlay of my personal and professional concerns regarding yoga, life, and everything in between.

You know, just a humble, small-scale blog parsing out the meaning of yoga and life. Hah!

If you're here, I'm assuming you found my page via my website or facebook page, and therefore most likely know me, or at least of me, to some degree. But in case you don't, here's a brief introduction of 8 arbitrary, but basic, facts:

1. My name is Andrea.
2. I'm twenty-seven years old (not sure when that happened, or when I became the kind of person to exclaim at how old she's getting:  "when did that happen?!")
3. I was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, but growing up my family made numerous trips back to the motherland (aka New Jersey) so I never really felt native, per se. 
4. I tend to write parenthetically (if you couldn't already tell) because my brain can move a mile a minute, ricocheting from one minimally relevant thought to another. I like to think this makes me good at making connections where other people might miss them. Most of the time though, it just confuses people (including myself,) so I promise this is the one time I'll indulge myself with copious parentheses. The blog will be slightly more packaged and polished (only so much as I can remember from grammar lessons in middle school, anyway.)
5. I am a writer and a wanderer and an old soul. I like to spend time alone, mostly going for walks, to think about things (I realize this is not a thing many people say as a legitimate activity, but it's true.) I resonate with words like "ponder," "meander," and "mosy." All this alone time means that I am very in tune with what's going on with myself, and can say some pretty weird shit when I finally get around people. 
6. Contrary to popular belief surrounding introverts, I do really love people. It took me awhile to figure this one out, as my high school and college experiences, while fine, were not really set up to encourage the social blossoming of one supremely awkward introvert (me.) But teaching yoga, while painful at first, eventually plugged me in to a community of people that I feel celebrated and supported by, and simultaneously taught me what it means to get energy by giving energy. So now, when I'm not mosying around by myself, pondering my existence, I really love being around friends and family. 
7. I used to dance Irish Step, which gave me the body awareness and sense of rhythm that would later serve me well in the beginning years of a yoga practice. I love movement. I love music. I love creativity and expression. These are non-negotiables in my life.
8. I am totally challenging all my puny beliefs of impossibility and smallness by starting this blog, and announcing this business, and taking a stab at actually doing what I love to do. It's weird, and terrifying, and either really great timing (I'm about to start a Masters degree in Counseling at JMU) or really terrible timing (I'm about to start a Masters degree at JMU.) But a large part of my hope is to continue to hone my craft (yoga-ing, pondering, writing), to share it with others (classes! workshops! online programs?!) as I grow, and to fall totally in love with my work, much like I see so many other amazing, small business owners in Harrisonburg. What a place. What a time. Here we go!

<3A