WELCOME TO THE IDEA JOURNAL!

Hello! We are beyond excited to share this passion project with the world! Our names are Allie and Lauren, and we are two high school students with spontaneous and adventurous personalities. We like to explore and laugh and try new things. We make fun everywhere we go and we see the beauty in everyone and everything.

About 6 months ago, we decided to start recording some of the ridiculous ideas we had. No lie, our very first idea was this: "Open up a nut shop called Nutting But Nuts. Have employees wear peanut costumes. Sell a variety of nuts." Lots and lots of our ideas are pretty dumb, like that one. Obviously for the purposes of this project, we will not be opening up a nut shop (unfortunately). But lots of our other ideas are just as ridiculous, but a little more attainable. For instance, we will be attempting to learn how to skateboard while wearing matching knee pads and helmets. Some of the ideas are an excuse to be able to do fun stuff we've been meaning to try. We have so much fun sitting around in class dreaming up ideas to do while we should probably be working. Anyone who knows us has heard "WRITE THAT IN THE IDEA JOURNAL!!!" from us at least a hundred times. We've collected over a hundred ideas and we add more every single day. Before we decided to use this journal for our Genius Hour project, we hadn't seriously intended on completing too many of these ideas, but we sure are glad we have a reason to now!

We talk sometimes about how we feel kind of stuck in this season of life, in between childhood and adulthood, just waiting for what's next. But if there's anything this journal has taught us, it's that there is so much joy, so much life to be lived, so much beauty in the waiting. We are not stuck or trapped here; we are free to experience and make life into what we want it to be. So that is exactly what we plan on doing! We are so happy you're here with us on this journey of whimsy and fun and not taking ourselves too seriously. We invite you to do the same and share with us what you're doing to make life fun and beautiful and exactly what you want it to be.

Stay tuned for descriptions of which ideas we complete each week, pictures of us doing them, and a little weekly wisdom of how we're growing. See you next week!

XOXO, Lauren and Allie