Thoughts on Blogging

I’ve never been a blogger.  I’ve never thought of myself as a writer. Honestly, I’m not a very funny person. At least not on purpose. I can make myself laugh better than anyone but making other people laugh is a totally different ballgame. Much to my surprise, I am finding that I very much enjoy writing and I very much appreciate all the compliments that have been sent my way over the last few months. By no means do I consider myself a writer but I do think writing is something I want to pursue. The word writer is reserved for people who actually know the difference between dependent and independent clauses.  I don’t.  But I think writing has given me an outlet that maybe I’ve always needed.

I have a point, I promise.

With my overload of free time that has developed here in the Eastern Hemisphere I have been reading blogs from people all over the world.  Some are amazing (http://coffee-helps.com/) and some are incessantly ridiculous and boring.  I hope to make this something that you enjoy reading.  Some entries are funny, some are… less funny.  Some are serious, some are sad, and a few are purely for my memory book and will likely bring you very little entertainment.  These writings are my thoughts, my opinions (of which I have many), and my experiences.  While they are censored, some things should not be published on the internet, they are, in the best of terms, me.  Silly sarcasm, poor punctuation, and emotional breakdowns all included.

I’ve always had a unnaturally low attention to detail and I suffer from the very serious “shiny object” syndrome.  That tends to annoy people.  Blogging has helped me to stay focused better and to notice more of the little things.  I get frustrated because I make several revisions before posting each blog and even then I still make an average of 14 corrections during it’s first three days online.  I’m working on that part of it though.  It would befit you all to wait a few days to read my posts.  By then most of the grammar issues and content changes will have been corrected.

The main purpose of this blog is to tell the world about my experience in SoKo, the good, the bad, and all the funny that happens in between. But the blog has a fine line. Everyone comes to SoKo for their own reasons and I am a self-proclaimed escapee. I was bored, had a good job but it wasn’t what I wanted for my career, and suffering from a mild (ok huge) bout of incurable anger and hurt.  Personal recovery is a huge part of this experience for me so I feel like that should be included.   A lot of people are reading this as they are considering making the same jump I did for whatever personal reasons they have.  I think it’s important that they see this is not running from your problems.   Not in the traditional sense anyway. 

Whether your bored, can’t find a job, have an irreparable broken heart, or just want to start over, this can be the preeminent step in the rebuilding process.  Mentally, socially, financially, all of life’s major aspects included.  You are able to take a step back for one year (at least) look at your life, your friends, your everything, and decide what parts make you a better person? What parts are you still missing?  And more importantly, what parts is it time to leave behind?  SoKo offers you a reboot.  A do-over.  Most people don’t get that opportunity.

I digress. Blogging has a fine line and I’m still figuring out where that line is for me.  That’s my point, I guess. At the end of the day, am I writing this blog for me? or for you? If it’s for me, then I have to be careful of what I post so it doesn’t come back to kick me in the bum when I run for president in twenty years.  (I’m not running for president.  And even if I did, this blog would not be the first thing they would splash up on CNN to take me down.  Trust me.)  But if this blog is for you, how much information do you want?  And what information do you want?  And at what frequency do you want it?

Oh a cool side note, I received an email this week saying that according to onlinedegrees.org my blog has been chosen as one of 50 top blogs for teaching abroad.  The list is posted here and is geared at students/prospective students to help them decide if this could be the right move for them as well.  I’m near the bottom of the page, but I don’t care.  There are a qua-billion blogs by English teachers all over the world and not only was mine found amidst the mix, someone actually deemed it as one of the best.  And that was encouraging. 

Sorry, this was a long one.  Thank you if you had the patience to read the whole thing!

Amy Kate