I rebranded my blog and started streaming after being gone for 7 years

Truthfully, I thought I would have written this well before now. I've been streaming pretty consistently for the last couple of months. And I "re-branded" (you can really tell here on the blog) months ago. I've kept it real close to my chest though, sure I've dropped a couple of stories on my Instagram and slowly rolled out new colors on my profiles, but the hard re-launch of this blog and bringing back streaming has been an investment that not many have seen in real life and have taken many hours to accomplish. NOT to say I haven't loved every second of it, if you know me at all, you know content creation of all sorts has been my passion since I was a child.

As many of you know there have been 3 main pillars (my blog, streaming, and Youtube) when it comes to content creation that I love. Whether I'm creating for my own brand or others, they fill me up in ways that make me passionate about the world and what I'm putting out into the world. I stopped writing on my blog as consistently several years ago when I found myself lost in what I wanted to share with the world. Apart from the crazy wild updates once a year I've been pretty quiet since early 2023, it's been on purpose. In the last two years so much has happened, and if you don't know the dirty summary, I will attach it here. I have grown so much as a person and really become someone I'm proud to be and show the world. I got caught up in the drama of being in a toxic work environment, with many toxic friends and it took me a long time to escape the reoccurring nightmare of bad decisions, half planned ideas, and no commitment to what I was doing with my life.

Since then, I've found my faith again, cleaned house of many people, worked through so much trauma, and found the path that my life needs to go at this point in my life. I'm working to bring light to the world through my words, connection, and faith filled ideas. I'm being guided by the best God and the right people around me, I can confidently say this is the life I've been searching for since I first lost it at 12 years old. I'm not perfect, and I never will pretend to be, I've said and done things I probably shouldn't have, I haven't always been the best friend, and I haven't taken care of myself as I should have sometimes, but what I do know is that at 15 when I died the first time (yeahhhh, shocker for those who don't know me and my story lol) I committed to be the best version of my that I can be at any given time, and for the most part I have been, slipping here and there like any human, but I will continue to do what I sought out to do that dreaded night in 2016.

As for streaming, I've loved it since Periscope came out in 2015 (if you remember, congrats you TRULY are an og), and I've missed the ideas and talking to my followers since the app was deleted in 2021 (even though 2019 is really when I started taking my hiatus due to college being a lot and being in and out of the hospital). So, I moved to Twitch earlier this year, and it came as a surprise to... no one :) However, I've been learning so much about coding, Twitch in general, and how much streaming has changed/evolved and grown in the last 10 years. It's been a game of cat and mouse, but I've also made some AMAZING friends, and continue to create more and more friendships and connections (both in person and online). My community is small but mighty to me, I have people who love and support me and prove that they want me to succeed, which has been the biggest transition in my life and I am so beyond grateful for them.

So with that, welcome to the new version of toriashleyyy! I hope you love it like I've loved creating it!