A Transparent Life

Welcome to A Transparent Life!

I’m Sarah, and I am a writer at heart. For me, the written word can be powerful, motivational, entertaining, confounding, world-changing. I want to dabble a little bit in all of those things, at some point.

Ruralist Co-Editor

Ruralist… well, the website speaks for itself more than I ever could. What are you waiting for? Head on over to check out the Ruralist!

Oh, and make sure to Like the page on Facebook and follow on Twitter!

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History and all That

This site was born in a time when I was fed up with the lack of transparency I saw in some of the people that I was supposed to respect. I thought that I needed to “be the change [I] want[ed] to see in the world” (Ghandi). So, I started to talk about my life: its highs, its valleys, its joys and its sorrows.

I want my posts on this site to encourage you, to challenge you, to get you thinking, to make you smile, and to benefit my community.

A financial advisor that I work with has a sign in her office that reads something along the lines of: “The highest compliment you can pay me is to refer me to others.” It recently occurred to me that this is true for me and this website, too. I love knowing that my friends and family come by regularly, but if you’d like to pay me a compliment, please share my work with your own family and friends. I’d love to welcome them into our conversation!

More about me:

I was raised in rural communities in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, and I have lived in a few international cities. The juxtaposition of the two cultures gives me some interesting perspective.

I am the oldest of six siblings, the youngest of which passed away in 2009, 18 months after our single mother died. You could say our family has had a tough go of it, but it’s all part of our journey.

I am two and a half years into a relationship with an amazing man named Johnathan, who is a hometown guy that I didn’t meet until after I had left town for several years and then returned for a few years. Our paths had come close to crossing, but never did… until the right moment on Labour Day weekend 2009.

I am in my fourth year as an Honors Specialization Media, Information, and Technoculture (MIT) student at the University of Western Ontario (UWO). Strike that. Western University Canada, as it has recently been renamed. I am also working on a Certificate in Writing.

For the 2012-2013 year, I am the Web Editor of the twelfth volume of my faculty’s student publication, the mitZine.

Here, I write about the things that I find most interesting and about the issues that are challenging me most.

Even though I’ve had this blog for several years, this past January I renewed my dedication to posting regularly. For a few months, I posted daily or almost daily, but recently, I have been spending too much time either gardening, doing housework, doing schoolwork, or doing work on other blogs, specifically Ruralist.ca and Profficer.ca.

Check out some series that I did earlier this year:

• Playing Favourites. Posted on Mondays, this series is about my favourite things. Obviously.
• Wordless Wednesday. The title is fairly self-explanatory, but the idea is to post a photo that needs few words. It’s a current trend among bloggers, so I’m giving it a go.
• Locality. On Fridays, I post about something local, whether that’s a product, restaurant, service, event, or something else. I think it’s important to value the great stuff around you instead of always passing it over for the more recognizable big names.
• Cheers! Each Sunday, I post about someone or something that is worth celebrating. I figure it balances out my occasional rants. (I changed the name from Celebrations to Cheers! on March 17, 2012)

{Locality} is a series that has garnered me a lot of interest, and one that will continue, if more sporadically than before.

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If I were to have a mini-manifesto, this would be it:

I’m a coffee snob, and proud of it.

I hate injustice. I get that from my parents.

I’m a procrastinator, and it works for me.

Hablo español… e um poco di português… mais je ne parle pas français.

I think writing is one of the most noble ways of communicating.

I sometimes get emotional, depending on what time of the month it is.

I like pretty things, and my taste is a little too expensive for my budget.

I rarely get new music ideas from the radio. I get them from friends, usually via social media. Please share your favourites!

I have learned to love house pets, but I would likely never join an animal rights society, because there are hundreds of millions of people that need food and clothing and shelter and love and clean water, and I just can’t find it in me to care more about the animals than the people.

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I love hearing from my readers. If you come by, leave a note and let me know you were here!

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All content on this website was created by and belongs to me, unless otherwise cited or linked. Please share and pin posts and ideas that you find here, but I would request that you link back to me somehow anytime that you do. Thanks so much!