on change and the written word. (a giveaway, of sorts.)

For six months before graduating from college, I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, in the basement of Jordan's parents' house. I was an intern at Coastal Living magazine, and I was torn between loving my job and wondering if it was all a journalism degree added up to. Some days I felt like I was living the dream, and other days felt closer to a nightmare. (I remember one hellish day in particular in which I received a horrid haircut and subsequently backed my car into a pole at the mall. Good times.)

In six months, though, Birmingham became a sort-of home, and I'm a little baffled when I look back now and realize how quickly I adjusted to change, how quickly I met and made friends and formed a new life.

We're made to be resilient, I guess, and I just must forget, because every time change comes, I fight it with everything in my being and power, failing to remember how I've been brought through times of change and challenges before, and it's always made me better. 

This job -- my dream job -- has been a lot like that, and while I can't go into details just yet, changes are on the horizon, and they're big, and scary, and those six months in Birmingham seem so very far away. I can't believe 21-year-old me was so incredibly brave. Soon, 27-year-old me will have to step up and do the same. 

One of the blessings that came out of those brief months on my life's calendar was my friendship with Cory. We met as interns at Southern Progress, and I'm reminded, yet again, of how God provided friends for me right when I needed them. We weathered through the typical storms of our young-20s, and now, I imagine, Cory and I are wading through the similar storms of our late-20s. We've both invested serious time and energy and money into our dreams, and those dreams, I think, may look different from what we expected when we were 21. 

That's okay. Fabulous, even. 

Because while I keep watch over a tiny bookstore in midtown Tallahassee, Florida, Cory is sweating over a printing press in Birmingham. And I think it's funny that years after our first meeting, we're each doing our best to keep the written word alive in a world that maybe forgets just how important it is. Cory is doing her part to make beautiful things, and in turn, as cheesy as it sounds, God is making beautiful things out of her. 

I say all that to introduce you to Cory and her business, Four Hats Press. In her studio, she now works with polymer, wood, and lead type to create hand-lettered custom business cards and invitations, posters, prints, and greeting cards. I'm proud to say some of her work is hanging happily in my home (and this beauty is on my wishlist, a perfect reminder for the hardships I'm currently enduring).

Now, to celebrate the growth of her business and the power of the written word, Cory is hosting a giveaway (a really good one, in my opinion). Click on over to enter. There are letterpress notecards at stake!