I'm sure many of my regular readers have noticed that I've been posting with a bit more frequency. I'm sure you've all thought this was me catching up for the time I was studying or trying to close the gap between my blog posts and present days, but I have different news.
Over the last few weeks, I've done some thinking about this blog. I have really loved keeping track of my adventures on here. When I started this blog I was heartbroken and lost. I needed to get out in the world, but I needed some sort of motivation. By setting a goal for myself and using the blog to keep me accountable, I ended up vastly exceeding what I set out to accomplish.
Even though I've gone on many adventures in the time gap between the last post and present day, I think at this point I'm moving backwards instead of forwards by posting them. Closing up the blog after 1 year's worth of adventures seemed like a great stopping point. The way I see it, the trips I took in July of 2011 were a big start to building who I am today. I wasn't afraid to explore on my own and take off on personal adventures. It was a big lesson in independence. If you want to do something, do it. You don't need anyone to go with you or hold your hand.
But on the contrary - I've also seen a lot of my friendships grow over the 2 years since I started the blog. I made sure to carve out time to spend with friends on more of an individual basis instead of only at parties. The quality of my friendships improved. That's where lesson number 2 came in: even if you can do things alone, you don't always have to. It's nice to be able to ask some friends if they would like to join you, but also being able to go it alone if you need to or even if you just want some time to yourself is important.
It's funny to think about my life and see where I've come from and where I've gone. A few years ago, one of my friends called me "relationship girl" and I was absolutely taken aback. "No, that's not me" I thought, but then I realized - as long as she'd known me, I had always had a boyfriend. From my perspective, I'd only had boyfriends for a few years. Thinking back from middle school to high school, I was always the friend that was going on adventures, exploring on my own, and being fairly independent. I thought I was still that person but I realized that even though I felt that way, maybe I didn't act that way anymore. You know you have a problem when the way you see you isn't the way that other people see you.
As I pointed out, I didn't realized that I would find all of that through this blog - I just thought that I was finding a way to systematically explore San Francisco more. Explore I did and even though I found a lot of cool things to do in this fantastic city, I also found myself.
The second year of my adventure, the one you won't get to read about, is probably where I grew the most but not really through the new adventures so much. At first I made the shift from "One New Thing a Week" to "New Things" in general just to accommodate changes in my schedule. Some weeks I could do 5 things, sometimes none. I thought it would even it out more. What I found though is that I didn't need any more motivation to do new things - they just happened. Going to new restaurants and cafes became second nature. I also realized an important lesson - just because you can do something new, doesn't mean you have to. That's when came upon a new dilemma, I wanted to go back and further explore some of my previous "New Things." I found parks and coffee shops and restaurants that I loved. Doing new things is important but it's nice to also have places and spaces that you love. The important thing was that I was getting out more and even in a familiar space, there are always new corners to explore, new exhibits to check out, or a new dish on the menu.
Through all of this, it became evident that while I loved the blog, it was a crutch I didn't need anymore. I had my life in a good place where I was able to explore, read books, have better friendships, and as of lately, find closure.
This blog started with a walk. I wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and no one could or wanted to go with me so I had to go it alone. I ended up spending the whole walk deep in thought and that's when I thought of the new-thing-a-week challenge and then later realized that a blog would be a good way to keep track of it. Recently, I was visiting my family in Southern California, I went with my mom to the beach and took another walk. I was originally looking for tide pools since a sign had indicated there were some nearby, but it ended up being another really good chance to think. I walked down the beach for miles at my own speed and stop to take pictures of star fish. It made me realize how much I love being able to do things on my own and I needed to be able to learn how to do that. Now that I have, I'm ready for something more.
Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting my blog. I am very guilty of checking my stats and it's really surprised me how many visitors I get and the geographic scope of my blog. Whoever you are in China, Russia, Malaysia, or Germany - thank you for finding my blog! In it's lifetime, I've seen almost 20,000 page views. That's way more than I ever anticipated.
It's time for me to stop looking backward, and start looking forward. I know I've said about 20 times how much I love this blog, and I do! The hardest part was figuring out what I would do with my pent up need to write about myself. I think the best move for me is start a new blog that is a little less personal. One of the biggest things for me in the past few years was to really come into my own and figure out what my own interests were outside of a relationship. So my new blog, is a collaboration with a few friends called Cinnamon Geek. It's basically going to be us geeking out over all the things we love in life. There may be some carry over from this blog but obviously from a different perspective. So sorry if my proliferation of posts gave you the impression that I was gearing up this blog - I was actually just eager to get started on my new project. There are too many geeky things going on in the world and it was a good time to move on.
To new beginnings!
P.S. I plan on carrying over my "Resolutions" so if you want to know how those went, be sure to check on Cinnamon Geek at the end of December.
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