Why Did I Start Blogging?

Sometimes you get great advice and ignore it. I was lucky enough to get the same great advice TWICE, and smart enough to take it the second time around. I’m a huge believer that most things in life happen for a reason, especially your encounters with people. Some years ago (four or five), I was at my local Walgreens and bumped into my good friend from college. Ian is his name and he could always be counted upon to tell you the truth. After paying for our items we continued our chat in the parking lot and Ian gave me a dose of reality.

My friend took a good look at me and told me that he was worried. I felt very exposed in that moment, but Ian was right. At that point in my life, I had spent 10 years doing a job that no longer made me happy, I was emotionally eating and had put on a ton of weight, and I spent a lot of my time crying over spilled milk (I should’ve done this. I could’ve done that. I would’ve had this by now if only I did that.). I told Ian that I felt lost and unhappy. He told me that life was too short and that I needed to get into something that brought me joy. But I didn’t know where to start. Then Ian said “Don’t you love to travel? Why not start a travel blog?”. It was GREAT advice. And I was genuinely grateful for it, but I did nothing about it, for a few reasons:

• I don’t like change.
• I didn’t think it could take off.
• I didn’t consider myself a creative person.

These are all normal human thoughts. Now that I look back, though, I’m reading between the lines and I’m seeing 3 different reasons: laziness, fear and a lack of confidence. And that’s okay too. We’ve all been there. I didn’t take Ian’s advice, but his words that night woke me up a bit. My life was feeling stagnant. I had grown way too comfortable in doing the same thing, and the danger there is that one day I woke up and things felt incredibly uncomfortable. So I started to pray and practice gratitude and told myself and really believed that my life would start to change. And it did. You wouldn’t believe how, and I’ll save that story for another day, but the condensed version is that I left my job for a much better one, and got to make amazing new friends.

Everyday wasn’t perfect. Some days were downright awful, but I persevered. I travelled, kept that energy of gratitude, and did everything not to become complacent. I even changed departments and got a promotion.

AND THEN COVID-19 CAME. The beginning (Spring 2020) wasn’t so bad. I was more fortunate than most; I was mandated to work from home. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But you never realize what you’re missing until it’s taken away. On one of my last days in the office, I was talking to a colleague about job security and next steps in life. He had so many goals and plans, and he was acting on them. It was quite inspiring. I told him that I didn’t have a clue where to begin or whether or not my passions could ever become lucrative. And then he gave me my deja-vu moment. He said “Don’t you love to travel? Why don’t you start a blog?”. He took me back to that Walgreens parking lot and I knew that this conversation was not happening by chance. I needed to make a move.

I went home, did research, took notes, and bought a domain name. Then I forgot all about it. For months. You remember what I said about not realize what’s missing until it’s taken away? Well, by June I was very depressed. The lack of travel, routine, and most of all human contact had taken it’s toll on me. The days felt long and I had way too much time to get in my head and overthink things that I should not have spared a thought. Then came the guilt from feeling down when so many others had lost so much more. It was a sad cycle. I went to therapy and thank God I remembered that blog.

I threw myself into it. I looked back at all of the photos from my trips, and the memories made me so happy. As I typed my first post, it was as if timed hadn’t passed since that trip to Paris. It took me about 5 months to realize that there’s only so much tweaking and perfecting I could do. I just needed to pull the trigger.

So here we are…

I started this blog because it makes me happy. I launched this blog because it helps me stay connected with people. I’m sure that by now you’ve seen a theme. Yes, I love Paris. But that’s not all I’ll talk about here. I’ll tell you about my time in Rome, Johannesburg, Tokyo and more. I’ll tell you my thoughts about life in general. I’ll share tips that I wish someone shared with me. And I’d love to hear from you. Tell me what you’d like me to talk about, and whether anything resonated. If my page made you smile, than this blog has far exceeded any expectations I ever had. À la prochaine.