About This Blog

I started a blog once before. It was sophomore year in college, and I'd recently become a regular reader of several (mostly running-related) blogs. I guess you could say that they inspired me to try my hand at blogging. I've always enjoyed writing, so it seemed like fun. I ended up deleting it because I felt like I had nothing to write about, and no one was reading it anyway.

When I started telling people about my trip in the months before I left, one of the questions that I was asked most frequently was: "Are you going to blog about your trip?" I'd thought about it, but decided that I didn't want to feel obligated to post regularly; I figured it would distract me and keep me from being fully present in my travels. 

But the more I thought about it, the more I warmed to the idea. It would probably be good to give myself a project; some structure for my trip full of on-a-whim decisions. Besides, hadn't I wanted to write a blog? I now not only had something to write about, I also had an audience, ready and waiting. People wanted to read about my travels.

The clincher, though, came when (yet another) someone asked whether I would be starting a blog. I said, probably not; I didn't want to have to worry about keeping up with my posts while traveling around. They said, yeah, you're probably right, but what a cool souvenir that would be if you did!

Couldn't argue with that one. 

And now that I'm actually doing it--I'm blogging--I'm incredibly glad that I decided to do it. Not only does it allow my friends and family to keep up with what I'm up to (and where I am), it also does give me structure, something I'm appreciating far more than I thought I would. I need this obligation, this assignment. It's something that I absolutely get pleasure out of doing, but it's also something that I have to make myself do, which makes me that much more joyous when I finish a post, and get to go out and work on material for the next one, by exploring a new place and getting up to all sorts of exciting shenanigans. 

It also helps me not to take things too seriously. My mishaps are just funny stories in the end, and being able to look at them through that lens keeps me from dwelling on them and making myself miserable. I can move on that much more quickly, on to the next adventure. It's all just stories in the end.

This blog is also allowing me to be very reflective on what I am getting out of this experience, who I am as a person, and who I am becoming. 

This thing is going to be one heck of a souvenir.