Dateline: my therapist’s office. On the cusp of a massive overhaul of my life, she asks what word describes my meaningful life going forward. One word, without hesitation: authentic.

Dateline: sheltering in place. Missing Cleveland restaurants and events. Watching as the small business owners that I respect so much mourned, struggled, innovated, and attempted to rise again. Thinking about the evolution happening both in the world and in my own life. Yearning for a new way to connect to the city and to you.

Dateline: a Zoom call with some of my most thoughtful and trusted friends. Where the idea for something new was born. A way to write with more depth, more intention, more authenticity.

Welcome to Authentically CLE. I wasn’t ready to leave the blogosphere. I wasn’t ready to stop creating. But I needed a new way to do it. Why CLE? is one of the things I will always be proudest of in my life. For almost nine and a half years, I shared events and meals and experiences around the city and, bit by bit, let you all into layers of my life.

And now here I am, with a brand new life ahead of me and a yearning to not only share more of myself with all of you, but also to tell the stories of all the people I’ve met and genuinely grown to love over the last nine and a half years of being a gal about town.

If the recent events in our world have taught us nothing, it’s that people are what matter. Our connections to each other will sustain beyond any one event or meal or night on the town. I want to tell the stories of the people behind the places and events and creations that we all love. I want to tell the stories of the people doing the good work day in and day out to make Cleveland the place it is.

When asked, I would unfailingly say that “the people” are my favorite thing about Cleveland. They are why I moved back twice. They are why I’ll never live anywhere else. They are why I am so passionate about this town.

So, stay with me if you were here before and hopefully gain something deeper out of the experience. And if you’re new here, welcome. We are all authentically CLE and I can’t wait to share our stories.