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March 1. This date holds a lot of significance for me. While I was in university, March 1 always marked the beginning and end of a commitment with an organization I was working with. It was always a bittersweet time of the year for me.
Today, it means something completely different. It is my one year blogiversary – one year online at this blog. Yay! I’m constantly amazed that there are people who are interested in what I have to say and take the time to comment. So THANK YOU to all of you who are reading this right now.
It has definitely been an interesting year. Who starts a blog when the adventure is over? Me apparently. I’ve been writing and blogging long before this site, but didn’t take it too seriously. I started this blog as an outlet a year ago. I had recently just returned home from a 19 month adventure in Europe. Living and working abroad. I had all these fantastic stories and adventures all in my head that were screaming to be shared.
I started this blog as a way of self medicating. While I was going through reverse culture shock, all my pent up frustrations and unhappiness needed a place to go. This blog was my form of escape; of trying to be away from home, of a life of constant adventure while being stuck in one place. I don’t know if it was the right way to handle reverse culture shock, but it certainly helped.
How can you not love a city that looks like this in the summer?
As I got more settled at home, I found myself a job. I made peace with having returned home and for the most part, got over my reverse culture shock. So what then? What to do with the blog? I lacked the motivation to keep it going. So I didn’t. My writing was half-hearted. Posts and stories came out whenever I felt like it. More often they didn’t. I have so many half written stories and adventures from this time period still in drafts that hopefully one day I’ll return to them.
And then The Boy came to visit. We explored my hometown and went on a little trip and then later I went with my brother to NYC. I was re-inspired. I started writing regularly, momentum started building up and now I’ve developed somewhat of a rhythm. That isn’t to say that I didn’t still have my moments of unhappiness about being home, but I am somewhat content.
Hungry hippo? Stepping off into the unknown in Victoria, BC
What about the future? I’m not so sure. I have no trips planned for the rest of the year, which hopefully will change as the year goes on. I don’t know what I am trying to achieve with this blog. Why am I writing? Why are you reading this? A part of this, on a big picture scale, is what is my niche? What makes my blog tick? It’s been something I’ve been struggling with for awhile. I haven’t set out any goals for myself for this venture and until I do, I feel lost.
In the one year, I published 70 blog posts. Considering I didn’t write much for the first half of the year, that is pretty good. For a year where I was suppose to rest, I did a remarkable amount of traveling: the Interior BC, NYC, Victoria, Portland and Budapest. Hopefully this upcoming next year will be just as unpredictable and interesting as the last. I’ll be trying to figure out the answers to my own questions in the months to come and there may be shifts in focus as I try and sort it out for myself. What would you like to see more of on the blog?
If you have any answers to my questions, please leave me a comment and let me know! Maybe you know more than I do.
Thanks again for reading and following along on my travel adventures. Here’s to another year. Happy Blogiversary to me!
If you’re new to Pack Me To, welcome!
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Samantha Angell says
March 1, 2014 at 11:18 AMHappy blogiversary to you! I have enjoyed your blog since I came across it. Its amazing how quickly a year passes! I’m sure you’ll have plenty of great travels this year as well 🙂
Adelina says
March 1, 2014 at 5:00 PMThanks Samantha! I’m looking forward to see what the upcoming year has in store 🙂
Sammi says
March 1, 2014 at 11:30 AMHappy Blogiversary!
I write because I always think I will need somewhere to look back on my trips. I write, quite selfishly, for myself. I decided to do TB101 to try to get some inspiration and mostly motivation- which having a little community of my own has really helped with. Plus more readers are looking at my blog- happy days.
Adelina says
March 1, 2014 at 5:00 PMThanks Sammi 🙂 I started off writing for myself mainly but lately I feel like I’ve been writing for whatever I think is good for SEO or what would make a post go viral, which is taking the fun out of it. It’s really hard not to and I need to figure out a way of going back to writing for myself. The TB101 groups is great for getting the motivation going though!
A Cook Not Mad (Nat) says
March 1, 2014 at 8:08 PMI totally understand what you mean. We started writing for ourselves and to keep in touch while traveling and then other people were reading and we got caught up in the marketing and SEO crap. When we re-read our posts from the beginning they are much more true to ourselves, we need to get that back.
Hey happy blogiversary to you.
Adelina says
March 3, 2014 at 1:59 AMYES! Exactly! You get it 🙂 It’s time to figure out how to merge the two and figure out something that takes into account both sides of the equation.
Henry | @fotoeins says
March 2, 2014 at 12:42 AMTo many more, Adelina!
Adelina says
March 3, 2014 at 1:57 AMThanks Henry! 😀
Brittany @ Paws for Beer says
March 2, 2014 at 5:02 PMCongrats on your 1 year! I’m just a few days away from my 1st anniversary as well!
Adelina says
March 3, 2014 at 1:48 AMThanks Brittany! Congrats to you too 😀
NZ Muse says
March 12, 2014 at 10:56 PMHappy anniversary! Blogging is one of the best things I ever did. Having a record of your thoughts and key events in life is such a great thing.
Rhonda @ Travel? Yes Please! says
April 27, 2014 at 10:54 PMCongrats on your blog anniversary! I too started my blog, after many great adventures, as a way to re-live my wonderful travel experiences. I think I suffer from “post-vacation depression” (if that’s a real thing), and blogging is a way to help me stay connected to faraway places, and happy memories, when I am stuck at home. Plus, it’s a great way to document your travels and I’m sure it’ll be fun to read back on it all years from now!
Adelina says
April 29, 2014 at 10:31 PMThanks Rhonda! I definitely had post vacation depression (I say it’s a real thing :P) – who wants to go back to real life after so much fun wandering and exploring?! Writing about my experiences have definitely helped both with reliving past adventures, but also help me look forward to new ones coming up.