Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Restlessness
Feeling restless today. Some might define it as anxious. Like a lot of things, it’s both. Something inside me just longs for more. More of what? My internal dialogue questions. I struggle to answer, but all I can hear in my head, is more of everything.
Everything. That sounds terrifying. Am I sure I want more of everything? In a way, yes. Do you every just feel stuck, and numb, like through the daily grind your just fading? Into what? I suppose complacency, mediocrity, nothingness.
I don’t often confront my feelings. Usually, as soon as I feel them surfacing I push them to the side, compartmentalizing is my coping method of choice. I search to fill my mind with anything else, world events, politics, language, music, anything can do the trick.
Normally I’m not even honest with myself. Ugh. But today, on here, I want to be. You see, I want to travel, desperately. Not just anywhere, but to the woods and mountains. I wonder if I’m just running. I’ve done a lot of that in my life. Escaping is easier than facing the reality of potentially getting hurt or hurting someone’s feelings. At least, at first it is. We all know how avoidance usually ends. Not good. Although escaping is tempting, it’s not really that.
No, I’m not running away, instead I want to run to. To what? A challenge, a way of life that is so simple yet so extreme. What’s keeping me from going? Responsibilities, relationships, reality…is the three r’s a thing? Ha, ha. While those are valid, and I recognize them, I’m going to continue to dream and to plan.
I’m curious, what do you feel restless for?
Where do I go from here?
I decided to create a travel blog for several reasons. First, simply, I love to travel. I think this started pretty early for me. Since I was seven, I would leave home for the entire summer with my grandparents. How lucky are my parents!?! My grandparents we’re experienced world travelers at this point, and so naturally they took my sister and I to a lot of new places every summer. I loved riding in the car, yes even the really long trips, and looking for new sites, and for familiar, like the St. Louis Arch.
My second reason for this blog is my desire to keep traveling! I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to almost every state in the U. S. But never out of country, something I plan to remedy as soon as possible!
However, I’m right in the thick of middle class life. I’m a full time working mom of two and wife of a husband with a very demanding job and difficult schedule. I’m in the phase of life that makes me realize how mid-life crises’s happen, and I sometimes wonder if I’m going through my own or just really stressed out. It’s a phase of life that my friend and I refer to as “suburban-high.” We are so grateful for what we have, but we have to laugh at the craziness that comes with life in our middle class suburban neighborhood.
So I always have a desperate desire to travel. “Please, take me anywhere!” is my inner voice as I’m trudging through taking kids to school and driving them to their countless activities, my one hour commute to work, while grocery shopping for the 5th time in the week, despite trying my best to have meals plans! Maybe it sets in the hardest for me when I’m spending my days off doing the 10th load of laundry, or cleaning the kitchen for the 20th time that week!
The desire to travel is more than that for me though. It’s not just to get away, it’s to see “what’s around the river bend” (I relate to the Disney classic Pocahontas the most!) I’ve always had a wondering spirit, I want to see and experience it all! As I get older, the more I feel the urgency to make sure I do that! I don’t want my travel – my seeing the places that I’m pretty sure once there, will hit me like the Oklahoma wind in my face, and say, “what took you so long, you belong here!” There are so many aspects of travel that appeal, the people, the landscape, the food, the history, did I mention the food!
Part of my challenge is feeling stuck in my circumstances, it’s hard to travel at this phase in my life with lack of resources and time. But I feel with every fiber in my body it’s important, that it’s worth it! I’m certain my fellow wonderlusters will understand!
I have had so many people tell me all the reasons why I can’t go where I want to go. However, I have been told that I am the silently stubborn type, sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse. But this rejection of my dreams of travel began to make me think. I began to stew. Am I going to give in to how others say I should live my life? Uh, no!
One of the best take-aways I have ever had was in a required class for my job. The teacher told us “don’t should on people!” So genius, don’t “should” on people and therefore, don’t “should” on yourself either!
So, I’ve decided to take every opportunity to travel and write about it, whether it be close to home, a side road on the way to work, a trip in my own state, or across the world! I’m excited to see how many places I can get to, despite my current circumstances! So, I hope you jump in my suitcase and come along with me, as I often say to my friends when they’re off to some wonderful place. No more living vicariously through other people’s travel. My journey starts now!
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
