Monthly Archives: January 2015

First Hop Across the Pond

Last weekend I started the path down accomplishing a lifelong dream.

We booked our plane tickets to Europe… and there is no emoticon or stock photo that will effectively capture that emotion.

I’ve dreamed about, planned for and wanted to go to Europe, Paris specifically, since I was five years old. When my dad used to come home from work and I was in kindergarten I would greet him, “Bonjour, papa”.  I started taking afterschool french lessons in first grade, continued with extra-curricular before-school French classes in middle school, and continued classes through high school and college. As recently as a few years ago I would drive around with “Learn French” CDs playing in the car to brush up on my French so it wouldn’t become rusty.

And last weekend, we made the first steps along this very bucket list item – we booked flights! We’ll be celebrating our five year anniversary with this trip, the only way we could justify the extravagance, and it will be unlike any other vacation we’ve ever taken.

Three countries, two people and another stop on our awesome journey.

Right now the plan is to visit Germany, France and the Netherlands.

What should we see, where should we stay? We’d love your advice as we get more into the weeds with this exciting trip!

How Not to Write a Personal Blog

pen-427516_640I love writing.

To me, writing is easy, cathartic even. My brain processes best through my fingers, rather than directly out my mouth, so it’s easiest to organize my thoughts and the information I take in by writing it down and reorganizing it into a simple, straightforward communication.

I write for a living, I write for fun, I write in my head even when I have nothing to write with.

Why is it, then, that this blog gets so little attention?

I don’t have a reliable answer to that question.

Perhaps it’s because personal blogging feels indulgent. It feels indulgent to spend the time on myself when there’s so much else that should be done. It feels indulgent to share stories about observations during the day and things going well, and not well, in everyday life. It feels indulgent to write, even discretely, about daily minutia without the specifics that can’t be shared.

It doesn’t feel indulgent to read those type of blogs, and it doesn’t feel indulgent to share those same stories over the phone to my best friend or in person over dinner to my husband. What’s different about a personal blog?

It could be the finality of print. Even digital “print” has a finality to it, a requirement that thoughts be processed, typos be removed and flow be pristine. When you write for a living, that bar is elevated even higher.

It would be easy to type here and pretend that I will fill this space every week, or even every month, but I know that’s not the case. As my shoulders weight down with differing challenges they may require me to step back and process in a more private way. As I experience good things, it can be even harder to diminish those events to words that don’t feel indulgent, or brag-like. Those posts are often even harder to write.

Is there a newsworthy element to sharing joy between blogger and reader? To where does the line extend between what can be shared and what should be saved?

These are all questions I wrestle with as I try to navigate the best purpose for this blog. It exists, because I do, and because I exist as I do, I have to write.

I believe my writing will benefit from this blog, and maybe even someone else will. So rather than commit to a cadence of posts, I’m committing to keep this page and try to relinquish the restrictions on what constitutes a worthy post. And, in doing so, I appreciate your leeway in judging the worthiness of the words and topics it includes.