♫ If you wanna know, here it goesGonna tell you there’s a part of me that shows if we’re closeGonna let you see everythingBut remember that you asked for itI’ll try to do my best to impressBut it’s easier to let you take a guess at the restBut you wanna hear what lives in my brain and my heartWell, you asked for itFor your perusin’, at times confusin’Slightly amusin’, introducing me ♫
Did you watch Camp Rock religiously like I did? Maybe I was (okay… am) a tiny bit obsessed with the Jonas Brothers. Welcome to the obligatory introduction post to get my blog started off on the right foot! I am going to go in depth talking about me and why I decided to start this blog. Then I will go into the nitty gritty of what I am hoping for the future to hold for me. Buckle up and hold on tight!
Who Even Am I?
If you will direct your attention to the header bar you will see a button that says “About“. As you could probably guess, clicking it will take you to an “About Me” page, but, wait! Before you go clicking it I’ll let you in on a secret, this post will give you way more than that page ever will. It is meant to be short and sweet, but this… this is the good, the bad, and the ugly.
So, who even am I? My name is Caitlin Thompson. I am 28 years old and have lived my whole life in the Appalachian Mountains. They have shaped my outlook on life for better or worse. If you stick around you will probably see me use some appalachian-isms here and there.
Living in the bible belt I grew up in the church. My mom and her family were Methodist’s and my grandmother on my father’s side was Church of Christ. Now I am simply spiritual. I consider myself an Appalachian folk practitioner and I realized that I have never felt at home in any organized religion. Mountain folk have long practiced in solitude and small groups and I have accepted that is what feels right to me.
My brain doesn’t quite work like everyone else’s. I have ADHD that wasn’t diagnosed until I was an adult. It made so much sense, but having a diagnosis didn’t magically make my brain make sense. I have spent a lot of time working through what works (and what doesn’t) and I really look forward to sharing my tips and tricks with all of you. I know that reading about other people’s experiences helped me a ton and I hope that writing about my journey could help someone else on their’s.
Now, I am about to say something that may scare some readers… prepare yourself: I am FAT. Now don’t go arguing with me saying things like: “But Caitlin, you’re a beautiful goddess!” I know I am. I never said I wasn’t beautiful, intelligent, worthy of love, or any other sentiment shouted from the rooftops the moment someone utters the word fat. I just know my size and I am okay with it. It has taken me a long time to like who I see when I look in the mirror and, although some days are easier than others, I can confidently say that I love myself and my body that carries me through all of life’s adventures. If you are struggling I hope you will remember that progress isn’t linear and it’s easiest when you just take it one day at a time.
Why Did I Start Azella Renae?
Thank you for asking! I would love to tell you. So my middle name is Renae and my Nana’s middle name was Azella. Thus, Azella Renae was born.
My Nana was my mom’s mom and my best friend in the whole world. She passed away in 2022, a few months before my wedding, and I thought the world was crumbling around me. She was my person, my rock, my shoulder to cry on, and my biggest cheerleader. Ever since then I have tried to keep her memory alive in the things that I do every day, so using her name was a no brainer to me.
Now, why a blog? Well, truth be told, I don’t have a great answer. I became unemployed in January of 2026 and I am taking some time away from the corporate world to take care of some things going on in my personal life. This has been very weird for me because I have worked nonstop for the past decade. I knew that I loved writing and reading blogs is my jam. I figured, why not? Maybe someone will find some entertainment value from my posts. If nothing else, it gives me something to do… if you have ADHD you know the quest for finding new dopamine hits is a daily struggle. Making this blog is teaching me to use WordPress, Google Workspace, and many other business tools that I would have never delved into otherwise.
What's the Plan for the Future?
Well, I will be brutally honest here. I hope to eventually turn this little blog into an income stream. Obviously, that isn’t the main point of it (for now), but I am hoping that I can make something out of this little corner of the internet. My husband is the main bread winner and, while I fully plan to go back to work full time in the next couple of months, I want to be able to use this platform to help take some pressure off of him.
I hadn’t planned on blogging the process of monetizing my blog, but as I am writing this paragraph I realized that some people may be interested in reading about what I am doing to make a little cash on the side. Even $100 a month would be a huge win in my book (I mean this is just another of my silly little ADHD hobbies). Only time will tell!
I know that I am not a professional in anything that I plan to write about, but I feel like my lived experiences could provide a unique prospective to many facets of daily life that many of us may struggle with. I hope that I can entertain and maybe even inspire just a few of you. That will make all of this worth it.
♫ Is it worth it? Let me work it.
I put my thang down, flip it, and reverse it .
Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gnaht ym tup i. ♫