We now interrupt this scheduled programme of backpacking-related blog posts to bring you something completely different. Time travel.
I thought that moving back to the UK this Christmas would just feel like my annual Yuletide visit, and that the fact that I don’t have a return flight wouldn’t hit me until well into the new year. Turns out, I really misjudged that one.
Instead, moving home this Christmas feels like going back in time ten years. I feel like my 16-year-old self: reliant on my parents, living back in my hometown, catching up with old friends and going through all my old things (found my Pokémon cards but, sadly, they are worth nothing on ebay). Read more
My favourite number is 13. Not because I was born on the 13th, or that the number 13 has significance in my life, but because I figure that a number that is unlucky for some has to be lucky for someone.
Much in the same way, the year that was essentially a real-life season of Game of Thrones for the world actually turned out to be a pretty awesome year for me personally. And not because I’m a “Leave” supporter or a Donald Trump fan. My year just kind of happened that way.
So sorry (not sorry) to gloat and rub it in your face, 2016, but you did not break me. 2016 had to be lucky for someone, right? Read more
It danced around my brain as I literally googled, “How to start a blog,” elected a domain name and navigated my way around WordPress. It repeated itself like a catchy jingle as I opened a new Word document to draft the first post and – for once – didn’t just stare at the blank white screen.
I actually started typing…
Why Now?
I’ve been living in Hong Kong for four years, and I know I’ve always said that I’d write a travel / lifestyle / book / other blog and never quite got round to it… so… why have I finally got round to it?
Maybe it’s a classic New Year’s resolution that I’m going to make with all the festive good intentions, only to slowly forget about and not be bothered with come February and March.
Maybe it’s because 2015 was filled with fantastic travel and writing adventures, and I don’t want to forget a single moment. I finally feel ready to start documenting all the past years’ memories as well as the adventures to come.
Maybe it’s my quarter-life crisis kicking in.
Maybe it’s because I’m just a little bit older, wiser and better organised (ish) with my time than I used to be. I’ve started carving out some ‘me time’ somewhere in the intense work-obsessed culture of Hong Kong and found, more often than not, that I am using that “me time” to write.
Maybe it’s because the grace period of my early twenties is over. I’ve survived the “figuring out what I want to do” years. Now, I’ve moved into the scary “figuring out how to make what I want to do a reality” years.
Why Not?
So “Why now?” Well, it’s because the clock has struck Do Something o’clock, and it’s already the second Thursday of Get Your Act Together in the year of What Are You Waiting For?
In other words, I stopped asking “Why now?” and started asking “Why not?” I pushed aside feelings of self-doubt. My fingertips claimed their rightful place on the keyboard.
What if I write a blog and no one reads it? At least you’re writing. What if I run out of things to say? Then you’ll just have to blog about that too. What will people think? They think you’re an idiot anyway. What if I say something stupid and then years later when I’m rich and famous it comes back to haunt me and ends up in the Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame? Well, then you know you’ve made it.
So, although it may surprise some people (most notably myself), here I am hitting the 400-word mark as well as the Save button on my brand new blog, Page Traveller. 2016, I’m coming for you.
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