An email arrived in my inbox with the subject line: Domain Expiring.

 

I opened it, and was reminded that I’d declined the auto-renew of a very special domain, my first domain, the one, the only…. MarineChick.com.

 

(This pic to the left was one of my main feature photos on MarineChick.com for awhile).

 

Ha! Yup, that was my first website. Ever.

 

This week, I officially let it expire.

 

And that was a smidgen weird and hard, y’know, because it was a big part of who I thought I was for awhile. Or, well, at least, it was reminiscent of my business beginnings. It summoned up some nostalgia at a minimum.

 

But it’s interesting (at least I think so) because concurrently, it definitely WASN’T who I was, even when I initially got the domain and started my business based on this “Marine Chick” premise. I wasn’t really a “Marine Chick” even when I was in the Marines. I didn’t have the tats, I didn’t have the bumper stickers, I didn’t talk about it much when I was out with my civilian girlfriends (or tried not to, anyway), and I barely identified as a veteran until these pictures happened. Yet, there I was in 2011, a couple years out of the Marines, and I was branding myself as “Marine Chick.” It didn’t feel quite right, but it wasn’t until the Marine Corps trademark office denied my attempt to trademark the name that I was forced to switch gears and subsequently admit that it wasn’t really who I wanted to be anyway.

 

Ya, I wanted to “own” that part of my identity with pride. Yet it wasn’t all of who I was or what I could offer to others.

 

It didn’t entirely define my service, my ability to serve.

 

(I imagine this is my previous self, gazing into the future of letting go of this 5 years later ;-p I look happy, don’t I?).

So, “domain expired.”

No renewal.

No forwarding or redirecting.

Nada.

Done-zo!

“New Year” is arbitrary, really. Just dates on a calendar. Yet, things feel different the time of year. Leaves turn over. Things shift. People declare.

What are YOU adding in, and subsequently, letting go of as you move into 2017??? I REALLY WANT TO KNOW.  ‘Cause when you say it out loud, or let another person know, it adds an extra helpful layer of realness and accountability to your intuitions and goals. 🙂

 

 

*All photos shared for fun, taken 14 December 2011, by Vithaya Phongsavan, Washington DC area photographer, who graciously agreed to photograph me one cold afternoon, very last minute, because a mutual friend begged him to help me with getting my business started. FIVE YEARS AGO!!!!