I’m Back. And It’s Been a Shit Show.

Well, hello again.

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down and written just because I wanted to write. Not a grant. Not a proposal. Not an email trying to solve somebody’s problem. Not something for work.

Just me.

I used to write all the time. About my life, my kids, business, travel, food, people, stupid things that happened to me and whatever else was rattling around in my head.

Then somewhere along the way, I stopped.

If I had to pinpoint when everything really started going sideways, I’d probably say 2020.

What followed has been, for lack of a more elegant description, a bit of a shit show.

The last six years have brought businesses, opportunities, projects, friendships and relationships into my life—and taken quite a few of them right back out.

Some ended quietly. Some probably should have ended much sooner. Some taught me expensive lessons. And some made me question my own judgment about people.

But somehow, I kept building.

I started new businesses and programs. I found myself working with teenagers and kūpuna and watching something as simple as helping someone with their phone turn into something much bigger than I ever expected.

I’ve worked with nonprofits, schools, businesses, government agencies and community organizations. I’ve written more grants, contracts, budgets and emails than any sane person should.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I changed too.

I’m 56 now.

That sentence is slightly horrifying.

Because in my head, there are still pieces of the woman who left Hawaiʻi decades ago and somehow ended up building a life in Dubai.

There’s the entrepreneur who opened restaurants. The mother raising kids. The woman who came home to Hawaiʻi after being away for 25 years. The woman who started businesses, trusted the wrong people, met some incredible ones, lost people, outgrew people and occasionally wondered what the hell she was doing.

Apparently, all of those Wendys are still in here.

Getting older has also taught me something I didn't understand when I was younger: starting over isn't something you do once or twice.

We are constantly starting over.

Sometimes because we choose to.

Sometimes because life picks us up by the back of our shirt and throws us somewhere else.

I've spent so much of the last few years building things, fixing things, helping other people and moving on to whatever needed my attention next that I haven't really stopped to think about what was happening to me while all of it was happening.

Maybe that's why I'm writing again.

There are stories I can tell now that I probably couldn't have told while I was living them.

About business. Hawaiʻi. Friendship. Loyalty. Family. Getting older. Starting over. Raising teenagers. And what happens when you finally realize some people and things simply aren't meant to come with you into the next chapter.

I haven't figured everything out.

Not even close.

But I'm still here. Still building things. Still traveling. Still curious. Still getting excited about new ideas. And still occasionally wondering what the hell I'm doing.

So after disappearing from this blog for far too long, I'm back.

Older.

Hopefully wiser.

Definitely more tired.

With fewer people at my table, a much lower tolerance for bullshit, and probably more stories than I've ever had before.

Let's see where this goes.