Here's To Vulnerability & Taking Chances

Hi, my name is Brittany and I am the founder of A MILLION ELEPHANTS. Let me start off by saying I am not a writer nor will I pretend to be. Creating this blog has been something I have been meaning to do for months now but have always found a reason for why I am not ready. The truth is, I will never be ready and I have just been too afraid to do it. There is something scary about putting yourself out in the open for everyone to judge and I guess you can say I am intimated by this blog. But here goes nothing, I am welcoming you all to get to know me a little better and allowing myself to be vulnerable and out of my comfort zone. 

Besides being the founder of A MILLION ELEPHANTS, the most important (and my fav.) title is mom. I have two kind, beautiful, inquisitive, slap your knee funny, larger than life children who I would gladly give it all up for. Paxton, who is now eight and Callie, who is four, are the reasons I wake up everyday and feel incredibly grateful. They are also one of the reasons why I decided to start A MILLION ELEPHANTS. However, the earliest reason of why I wanted to start it all can be traced back to when I was a child myself in elementary school.

Growing up in a mixed family (my father is Laotian and my mother is French, English and Romanian) in a small city in Ontario, Canada, I got a lot of the same questions about what my ethnicity was and when I answered, I got even a lot more of the same responses--- Laos, what or where is that?! Fast forward to 2018 and I still get a lot of the same puzzled looks when I tell people I am Lao. Its times like this when I think the world isn't so small after all. Long story short, Laos is not well known in the world and this is especially true in North America. I want to change that. 

There is a single moment that I can recall of when I really had my spark to start what is now A MILLION ELEPHANTS. It was back in January 2017, when I decided to backpack solo to Laos for the first time. I was going through a lot of changes in my life and as my sister Katie likes to put it- it was my "eat-pray-love" trip. While on this journey, I was exploring a night market in Luang Prabang one evening and met a child selling souvenirs made from recycled bombs from the war. Although growing up my father would share stories from his childhood and the war, I never fully understood the impact it left in the country and the people until I seen it for myself. To this day, Laos remains one of the poorest countries in the world and holds the title of being the most heavily bombed country in history!! There are a few things I learned that day: Lao people are incredibly resourceful, resilient, talented, hardworking and creative. I want to share this. 

And so it began. When I returned home I made a business plan with the why in mind each step of the way. Now its 2018 and my plan has finally turned into action. I am so excited for this year and can't wait for you to see what A MILLION ELEPHANTS has planned. 

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