Changes are in the air.

Jenna sitting on a bench in the park.

Dang, friends — it’s a new season out there.

The winds are high and it’s time to hunker down and prepare for change. And this newsletter is all about change because our wonderful, hilarious, smart and sensitive writing coach Jenna is moving on to her own self-employed adventures.

It’s impossible to overstate how much Jenna brought to Firefly in the last three years. 

She created our first workshops offered exclusively to the LGBTQ2S+ and BIPOC communities. She also created our very beloved teen program, for which she is already missed. (Parents! I promise we’ll get this back on our roster when we can!) Along with Ailsa, she co-created the Firefly Open Mic nights, and hosted many unforgettable ones.

And then there were the little things… How she taught the rest of the team to play pool at our year-end party, how she would be the one to call the pizza place when they forgot to bring our sides. Every community is an ecosystem, and we’re losing a beautiful, cherished and important part of ours.

But, everything that’s alive changes, and I’m inspired to see her bring more and more of herself to the world. 

She was recently taken on by the “Talk About Speakers” speakers bureau (woot!) where you can book her to do a talk for your company or organization. She also does conference storytelling and workshops in self-expression. The themes she comes back and back to are identity, diversity and self-expression, especially intersections of race, sexuality and faith.

I am excited to know she’ll be bringing her Jenna-brand charm and intelligence to bigger and bigger audiences. You can follow her journey on IG here, and see her website here. And of course you can email her at jenna@fireflycreativewriting.com to send her your good wishes.

My therapist says, “Everything is trying to become the next version of itself.” Change is hard, but it’s the only way to keep moving and growing. So here’s to the next you, the next page, the next story, and all the winter will hold for us all.

With wonder and love,