Friends Inspire // here's mine

So on to day three of the 31 days - a writing challenge. Yesterday I shared about some of my Instagram-inspirations. That was fun but not as personal as I want to be here. I really want to be able to share my heart and the deepest things that inspire me and drive me to do what I do. Today I am going to get down and personal about one special individual that never ceases to inspire me.

Meet, my friend, Kenna:



Isn't she gorgeous! This girl LOVES Jesus and it just radiates from her.

Kenna and I have been friends for, oh, five years I think. We met at a mutual friend's bridal shower and I was just DRAWN to this girl. I mean really, wouldn’t you be too? I got to talking to her mom and learned that she was going to the same college as my little brother and I made a point to try to connect with her.

As it turned out we were both in design and interested in photography. I don’t really know what happened from there, we just clicked. I was pregnant with my first boy at the time that I met her so our lives couldn't have been more different but that didn't trip up our friendship in the least. Since I was staying home with Nelson number one, I decided to start my own business and in the process I learned a lot from Kenna.

I actually envied her a little bit. She was doing what I had never done but always wanted to experience. She was going to college (not tech school) for design and she got all of the instructing that I never did. I had such fun learning from her and gleaning from the courses that she took and the bits of information that she shared with me. Eventually she took an internship with Mae-Mae Paperie out of the Twin Cities and I could not have been more excited for her. It was exactly what she wanted. She would share with me what she learned and I would dive deeper into learning how to do the same kind of things.

In doing so, I learned about myself. I learned that I had never really developed my personal style and while Kenna and I love a lot of the same things I felt a lot of times that I was just copying, I just wasn’t sure if I really liked certain things or if I went along with them out of admiration for my sweet friend. I came to realize that somewhere along the way (during my high school years) I had lost myself. I had lost all sense of identity and who I really am as a person, a designer, a child of God. I don't think she knows it, but Kenna is largely the reason that I have gone about re-discovering myself. She not only has inspired me graphically but spiritually and I could not love her any more for it.



I truly understand this verse thanks to Kenna. She really does love at all times. I have struggled with insecurities not only with myself but they bled through to my friendship with her and she handled them with such grace and love that only a brother (or sister in this case) could have.

Do you have a friend that inspires you like this? If you do, share about her in the comments section below, I would love to learn a little bit about your inspire-friend.

Thanks so much for reading today's post!
<3 Kayla