Welcome to my new blog. Why start a blog in 2025 you might ask? Well, with house prices so astronomical these days it’s nice to have a space to call my own, albeit a digital one!

I still find nothing more magical than stumbling upon a quaint personal blog that offers a peek into someone else’s life. Some have even changed mine — Reading Tom’s Bike Trip inspired my solo bike journey across the U.S. when I was 22. Blogs harken back to the good ol’ days of the internet before social media standardized the way we expressed ourselves online and hooked us on infinitely scrolling news feeds.

Don’t even get me started on news feeds. I’m dating myself here, but I’m still upset about Facebook getting rid of the wall - The wall provided the perfect blend of intimacy and conviviality. You could post a message meant for one other person that could also be read by anyone who cared to go looking for it. It was the internet equivalent of having or eavesdropping on a one-on-one conversation in a coffeeshop.

Now any action you take or post you share on Facebook gets blasted to everyone from your Great Aunt Mildred to an acquaintance from a summer job 20 years ago. It raises the stakes such that anyone but the bold and extroverted might hesitate or self censor. I, for one, became a ghost on Facebook after the advent of the news feed.

For the same reason, Twitter (I mean X, ughh) was never a viable outlet for me. I did get into Instagram for a few years, but eventually I found myself spending more time passively consuming than posting. Thank you, addictive personality and the algorithms that exploit it. Not to even mention the ethical implications of supporting those companies…

All that to say, I’ve been craving a place to express myself online more freely and authentically.

Since the fall I’ve been taking a sabbatical between jobs. In addition to reading lots of books and perfecting the art of the afternoon nap, I’ve been pursuing dance classes and a drawing practice, both long-held and long-neglected dreams. Before last September I had never taken a single ballet class and never drawn anything beyond a doodle, and now dancing and drawing are woven into my daily life.

Attempting these childhood-associated activities as an adult has been both invigorating and humbling. I’ve been learning so much about learning that I wish I could share with my past self. I figure maybe others could benefit from hearing about my experiences, too. At the very least my parents will enjoy reading it (hi, Mom!).

And finally, I fully expect the internet to be completely ruined within the next couple of years as it floods with AI-generated content. It feels nice to resist that inevitable fate by putting something human out there.