For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had pretty lofty goals. Typically, I’d dream up these goals in my spare time, or when I was stuck doing something I wasn’t interested in.

I think the older we get, the smaller our dreams become because we have too much logic blocking out the possibilities.

Perhaps I’ve built my life by blocking out logic?

I feel like I have written about Amelia Island here already, but it may have been stories from other beaches.

The short version of my Amelia story is that I somehow stumbled upon it when I was a senior in high school. I never had enough money to stay, but since I only lived around 2 1/2 hours away, I’d take my old film camera, head out long before daylight to photograph the sunrise, soak in the morning, then hit the road back home.

Then, the fall of 2005, I finally got to go and stay the night with two friends by my side. It was one of the greatest trips. I took so many photos. I remember how wonderful it felt to wake up and walk out to the ocean to capture that sunrise and then write in my journal for a while.

On that trip, I remember dreaming about staying at the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge at that time. It was dark as we walked along the beach and I remember stopping and just thinking it was one of the most beautiful houses I’d ever seen. I wondered what it would be like to be able to stay there.

In 2009, I finally got to stay there. My favorite part (other than the amazing view from my room) was watching storms roll in while on the huge porch. I looked out, wondering what that girl who had walked on the sand out by the ocean that night would’ve thought if she’d known that she’d actually get to be there one day.

After that trip, I didn’t get to return for way too long. Then, my cousin sort of gave a piece of that island back to me. I got to take so many photos again and I fell right back into that peaceful, creative feeling.

I found myself…right where I’d left myself.

In honor of “the place quiet enough for me to hear myself,” the summer of 2021, I created my first coffee table book, “Two Decades of Amelia Island.” I had a lot of things going on in my life at the time, but somehow, it got published and I cried when The Book Loft, on Amelia, agreed to carry it!

This was the First Edition. It is still available here.

I have felt so much support for that book project. So much so, that I decided to go back through all the old negatives and drives again.

My new, lofty goal?

My newest one is creating “Two Decades of Amelia Island” the Second Edition!

This time, I added those sunrise photos and all the colors my camera got to see over the years.

For now, here’s the cover! I’ll have more details soon, but it will be available this fall!

Thank you all SO much for supporting this project. Digging through the boxes that hold all of my Amelia memories and writing new pieces to go along with them has been a much needed thing for me.

If you have lofty goals, don’t wait. Even if you are worried it will fail, who cares? If there is something that means a lot to you, take that path. It may take you on a journey.

~Alisha