MontanaGrits is about the grittiness of life. Do not expect solutions here. This is a platform to better walk through adulthood together, while learning to embrace the good, the bad, and the gritty. Because life is ALL of those.

The title has a little backstory. I’m a southern gal who has spent time living in the snowy mountains of Montana as well as a few short-term locations overseas. I started writing this while living in rural Montana and missing the cozy comforts of the south including the famous southern hospitality, sunny days, normal hours of daylight, and as you might expect, grits. I was a Georgia transplant in the mountainous, FREEZING and epic place that is the Flathead Valley. The place changed me as places will once we allow them to work their magic. Those mountains stretched, challenged and filled me with joy. So much so, this blog was born.

Now, I live in the southeast again in that infamous state that is something like a hidden gem called “Sweet Home Alabama.” I’m thirty now and realizing just how gritty life can be. It isn’t the ideal world I hoped for in my twenties nor are my problems as large as I once believed. Life as this sandpaper mixture of events and memories leaves us bumped and bruised at times, but it also refines us, revealing something authentic that was formerly hidden. Turning thirty has allowed me to feel like a REAL adult, whatever that means.  I may still want a motorcycle, get a pilot’s license and continue traveling the world, but I feel the restlessness of my twenties dissipate. I see myself asking new questions about life, relationships, and finances. MontanaGrits is a place where those questions are asked, and thoughts are solidified or reframed. Together, we’ll discover ways to approach the gritty, adventurous place of adulthood.

To you out there, wherever you may be: Happy reading.

-JS