Tuesday, November 13, 2012

What?

Blogging is such an interesting form of communication with the world.  Some people use it to communicate with family and friends who live far away, others use it as a way to earn income, while still others use it as a way to track projects or hold themselves accountable.  I started this blog in 2008 before I really started using Facebook.  A lot of my early posts are now what I would most likely do as a status update or shared link on Facebook. I don't think they justify a full blog post. I don't quite know what my blogging should look like now.

While I was in the Peace Corps, I created a new blog to keep in touch with family and friends.  I didn't want to spam people with e-mail updates of what I was doing and I wanted a good way to share photos. In some ways I regret using a blog as my means of communication.  First, I think using a blog as a way to communicate made me feel even more alone.  People didn't write back as they might with an e-mail and I don't think I encouraged people to leave comments enough. The other reason I regret using the blog to communicate was that our blogs were heavily monitored by the Peace Corps and we were told we could only share positive experiences on our blogs if they were public.  This means I didn't really blog about a lot of my experiences and it also means that my friends and family (and anyone else reading) didn't really get an accurate portrayal of my service.  In hindsight, I wish I had just written an e-newsletter about my service instead.

Now that I have finished my service, I find I do still want to write and I have come back to this blog. However, I find myself at a bit of a loss when it comes to what exactly I want to write about. I am still trying to figure out what I want my blog to focus on.  In the mean time. I guess a little snapshot of what I have been up to will suffice.
Chicago Activities
Since my previous posting in August, I spent a week in Chicago having a reunion with some of my amazing cousins.  The weekend involved lots of yummy food, seeing Ira Glass speak at the opening weekend showing of "Sleepwalk with Me," and miniature golf. I also spent three and a half weeks in NYC work on a temporary job collecting samples of waste and recycling at transfer stations. As September ended, I found myself back in Seattle and back on the job hunt.  This is where I feel like things sort of stall.  I have had some phone interviews, but nothing has turned into anything.  While I do feel frustrated, I think more than anything I feel embarrassed.  At my age, all my friends seems to have a major successes or life changing events occurring that seems to make my existence pitiful at best.  I cheer on the new babies, promotions, new homes and loves found, but another part of me is so conscious about my own lacking that it makes it hard to be around people.  I hope in the coming months that things will change.