SacCycleChic - You go, girl!

As a writer, you often run into other writers. I don’t why that is. Somehow we attract each other and end up bonding over the woes of our craft. Maybe it’s because it’s an isolated art form, but just knowing there is someone else out there following their passion and struggling like you is what you need to stay focused.

One of my fellow bloggers and girlfriend did that just recently. Lorena is SacCycleChic and she blogs about cycling and fashion – together. It’s a niche market and she doesn’t just write about it. She lives it.

I met Lorena last year and she amazed me. She told me that when she started her blog, she gave up her car and now bikes everywhere. She writes about her passion and takes photos of others biking around in the city. She is an advocate for everything bike related, but also creates awareness of the fashionable bike trend with events such as her Velo & Vintage Fashion show that she had on May 7 and CycleChic Sundays where she takes fellow cyclists on free rides around the city.

Over the year, she's gone from someone I interviewed for a News10 story to friends who talk about everything ranging from writing to relationships. I’ve gotten to know her as an incredible, independent creative woman who puts a smile on my face whenever I see her biking around town.

But this January she got the writer blues.

If you’re an artist, you know what these are. It’s those moments when you start to doubt your passion. It’s the times when you think it would be easier to give up on your dream and take the easy route by getting a job that pays well (rather than one you love). It’s those moments of weakness when you wish you could go with the flow instead of feeling like a salmon whose swimming against the current.

Lorena had the blues and she had them bad.  She was thinking about giving up her freelancing life and settle down. Artist and design jobs were in short supply in Sacramento and she was worried her blog wasn’t going to be able support her. She had worked so hard to get where she was and yet, it wasn’t quite enough. She was even considering a job in San Francisco which would mean she would have to get (gasp) a car.

You can’t imagine how sad this made me. Here was my fashion-forward writing friend forced to alter her beliefs because of the economic situation of the area. I didn’t want her to give up on her dream – not only because I knew she would be unhappy, but because then maybe I would have to re-evaluate my own dream. I mean, if someone I watched work so hard with such dedication couldn’t make it, what made me think I could do it?

Thankfully, Lorena fought the writer blues and I’m so proud of her.

She's back to her fiesty SacCycleChic self and swimming against the current with even more determination. Her Velo and Vintage Fashion Show was just the beginning of the things she's going to do this year. She's got big plans and she's not giving up.  She may be barely over 5-feet tall, but she's got the drive of a giant and is an inspiration for all artists out there.

Watch out world…SacCycleChic is about to take you on and she’s going to look good doing it!

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