Waiting Room November update

Dear friends,

When I was 14 years old, I had had enough. I had been pretending to be okay even while I felt lost and alone. The world hurt. I didn’t like being in it. I looked everywhere for clues and signs that things would get better, but all I found were other unhappy, confused, and questioning people just like me.

I felt compelled to help. I wanted to say “same here,” and “I’m scared too,” and “we don’t have to do this alone.” I wanted to take away the pressure to be perfect. Even more, I wanted to expose the truth that we’re all normal and we don’t have to hide our struggles. No one has to figure it out by age 18 or 30 or 62, and no one has to do it on their own.

These were the words I longed to hear, so I started writing them on little scraps of paper that I would hide in books, or tape to telephone poles, or slip onto bulletin boards. To my surprise, my notes caught on locally, and then nationally, and then globally. I termed my work Random Note Project, and I was shocked to find myself on television and in magazines talking about the importance of connection and vulnerability.

Sometimes I miss what’s right in front of me.

While Random Note Project continues to exist (Join us here!), I never considered that my book Waiting Room is a natural next step for the project. In a public relations and branding meeting, someone made that connection for me and now…

Waiting Room is joining the Random Note Project family!

If you follow me on social media, you will see my posts unify under the Random Note Project style. I didn’t intend to create a brand with Random Note Project—I was 14—so this format is truly the most natural expression of my work. I can’t wait to share thoughts and quotes from Waiting Room in the style that feels most like home for me.

For the next few weeks, I will be writing from Botswana. I’ll be sharing posts and animal encounters on my Instagram page, so be sure to follow along.

xo,

Gabrielle

P.S. Not sure what to expect? Here’s a note you may have missed: