welcome | ethos
heart
The Olly Project is a collection of blog posts on emotional intelligence, vulnerability, authenticity, courage, bravery, loss, and grief. This a platform for exploring the heart of human experience, from the lightest and loveliest moments to the darkest and heaviest.
truth
I believe in the power of language through my commitment to truth. All of experience is subjective, and yet an essential task of mine is to capture some of these irreducible experiences honestly and intimately.
Transition
We find the most sacred parts of ourselves in the midst of transition: what we value, whom we love, where we hurt. I find the expression of these bits of our humanity critical, and therefore moments of transition capture much of my attention as a writer.
THe light
All the authors in this massive library, all the researchers, students, and faculty in my department, every intellectual in this city, including me, are seeking to represent something unrepresentable. Who are we? Who are we not? I ask, who are we to say?
The places that I was originated alongside are part of me, and I am exceptional for those things because I am made more by them.
the dark
Beholding someone’s deepest pain throws a wrench in our plans. It is an embodied, time-consuming, transformative process.
I believed in my heart that it was love. I know now it was the addiction of feeling loved, wanted, desirable – the addiction of codependence, an obsession with chaos.
I am drained and fulfilled and overwhelmed and thriving and fighting back tears and laughing, all at once.
The Gray
I am different and I am the same, and I love differently, and I love the same. I am beginning to suspect that this might be the rhythm of all my life.
the field
Just because something is hard doesn’t mean you are doing it wrong. Sometimes it means you are doing it exactly right.
A good coach turns defeats into opportunities for growth, unity, and the enduring strength of their team.
A good coach lets things flow, takes in her team’s input, speaks when needed, and knows when to step back.
It’s part of loving children. It’s part of leading people. And if you can’t do it, you need to step back and figure out why.
Meet the author
Olivia Gaughran founded The Olly Project in April of 2018 to fulfill a deep personal need to write her way through vulnerability, authenticity, courage, bravery, loss, and grief.
As a Mexican-Irish immigrant to the United States, she continues to cultivate a global, interdisciplinary perspective throughout her personal and professional life. Olly received a masters degree from the University of Cambridge and currently lives in Seattle.
Challenge yourself to opt in rather than out. Whatever you do, do it deeply. Trust that you will be beautifully and wonderfully made as you go.