Hi there, and welcome to my first blog post!
I've got to get some momentum going somehow, I guess, so I'm going to use this post as an opportunity to talk about why I started a blog in the first place.
Why this blog exists has a little to do with me, and a lot to do with other people.
The idea to blog incubated slowly in my mind, starting months ago in December, as soon as I began seriously thinking about taking a gap year before college. My general plan is to spend this summer and next fall working (to fund the traveling portion of my gap year), likely with some type of volunteering on the side, and then spend the remainder of my time in Latin America para mejorar mi español (to improve my Spanish). I'd tell you exactly what I'm going to be doing but, um, I'm still sort of working on that, and I'll keep you updated as my plans become definitive. One thing I know for sure, though, is that a good gap year requires a lot of research, and it's the most fun research EVER. I certainly don't want to risk sitting at home doing nothing for a year, so I've been investing a lot of my free time into figuring out how to maximize my gap experience. Enter: travel blogs like those of Marek Bron, Brooke Saward, Jessica Wynne Lockhart, and Matt Kepnes, which reassured (aka overwhelmed) me with the zillions of possibilities the upcoming months could hold for me - as well as got me thinking, hey, why not blog about it, too?
And as much as I anticipate having fun with this, I will be writing not for myself but for others. Journaling by hand is typically more my style. I try to write regularly, and when I travel or go through a specifically unique experience, my journaling habits ramp up at least tenfold. Unfortunately, what's in my journal is a my-eyes-only type of thing, so when my friends and family want to know what I've been up to, they often get a much shorter oral version of my experiences. Sometimes this is because I can't possibly summarize everything in one sitting at the dinner table. Sometimes it's because the person I'm talking to doesn't actually want to hear me ramble for hours, and sometimes it's because I don't feel like rambling for hours. Sometimes the exchange is simply,
"So, how was your summer?"
"Good, thanks."
But no matter the circumstances, I never get to talk as much about everything I have loved and learned from as I would like to.
I'm not here to brag about what I'm doing or force any of my opinions onto others. I just don't want my thoughts or experiences to be limited to only me; I want as many people to benefit from whatever it is that I learn or am exposed in order to stretch that experience as far as possible.
In all honesty, I probably still won't get everything down that I want to get down, but I'll still be sharing more than before. I expect to get a few posts out before I actually pack my bags and go anywhere, in part to get in the habit of it and in part because excursions to foreign countries are not the only journeys worth sharing.
I'm excited to get started on here and write for anyone willing to learn with me on my out-of-classroom journey!
I've got to get some momentum going somehow, I guess, so I'm going to use this post as an opportunity to talk about why I started a blog in the first place.
Why this blog exists has a little to do with me, and a lot to do with other people.
The idea to blog incubated slowly in my mind, starting months ago in December, as soon as I began seriously thinking about taking a gap year before college. My general plan is to spend this summer and next fall working (to fund the traveling portion of my gap year), likely with some type of volunteering on the side, and then spend the remainder of my time in Latin America para mejorar mi español (to improve my Spanish). I'd tell you exactly what I'm going to be doing but, um, I'm still sort of working on that, and I'll keep you updated as my plans become definitive. One thing I know for sure, though, is that a good gap year requires a lot of research, and it's the most fun research EVER. I certainly don't want to risk sitting at home doing nothing for a year, so I've been investing a lot of my free time into figuring out how to maximize my gap experience. Enter: travel blogs like those of Marek Bron, Brooke Saward, Jessica Wynne Lockhart, and Matt Kepnes, which reassured (aka overwhelmed) me with the zillions of possibilities the upcoming months could hold for me - as well as got me thinking, hey, why not blog about it, too?
And as much as I anticipate having fun with this, I will be writing not for myself but for others. Journaling by hand is typically more my style. I try to write regularly, and when I travel or go through a specifically unique experience, my journaling habits ramp up at least tenfold. Unfortunately, what's in my journal is a my-eyes-only type of thing, so when my friends and family want to know what I've been up to, they often get a much shorter oral version of my experiences. Sometimes this is because I can't possibly summarize everything in one sitting at the dinner table. Sometimes it's because the person I'm talking to doesn't actually want to hear me ramble for hours, and sometimes it's because I don't feel like rambling for hours. Sometimes the exchange is simply,
"So, how was your summer?"
"Good, thanks."
But no matter the circumstances, I never get to talk as much about everything I have loved and learned from as I would like to.
I'm not here to brag about what I'm doing or force any of my opinions onto others. I just don't want my thoughts or experiences to be limited to only me; I want as many people to benefit from whatever it is that I learn or am exposed in order to stretch that experience as far as possible.
In all honesty, I probably still won't get everything down that I want to get down, but I'll still be sharing more than before. I expect to get a few posts out before I actually pack my bags and go anywhere, in part to get in the habit of it and in part because excursions to foreign countries are not the only journeys worth sharing.
I'm excited to get started on here and write for anyone willing to learn with me on my out-of-classroom journey!