Back to blogging I go

...care to be my +1?

The first time I came across blogging I was living in London. It was back in 2006 and my husband and I were offered an opportunity to move abroad for one year after having just arrived in NYC. Back then, we were a fresh-faced and doe-eyed couple, full of hope and wonder. We had not yet experienced the twists and turns of life that were to come. Illness, surrogacy, grief, but also adventure, angels on earth, and friends that became family.

I haven’t had much time to sit down and write lately. I think the last time I actually did it was right at the beginning of covid, using writing as a lifeline and a way to make sense of all of the chaos around me. It was, after all, my first pandemic and something completely unknown. I remember taking the time to reflect and write, putting it up on IG. I liked the creative process and getting LIKES boosted my spirits. I guess I have always thrived on external validation. And IG did exactly that.

But lately, I haven’t been so keen on my relationship to social media. I have arrived at the conclusion that these LIKES are like dopamine hits. And you can never get enough. Unless you have a strong WHY and are enjoying the process. At least that is what I continue to hear. I guess I haven’t found a strong why and perhaps the process is not that enjoyable. I have heard that in order to find success as a creator you need to commit. Commit with a capital C. And I am not sure I can do that. Let’s just say I am more like a hummingbird that likes to try a lot of different things. And is probably the reason why every few years I make my way to a new passion and interest (crypto is my latest), instead of sticking to (fill in the blank) for the past 20 years.

My husband still laughs at how he can’t believe I actually said “YES” when he proposed on a pink beach in the Cayman Islands 20 years ago. I guess I have proved him wrong.

However, the idea of showing up every single day. Sharing the exciting and the mundane, making a reality show out of your life still does not appeal to me. It sounds exhausting. This is why I struggle with my relationship to social media.

The beginnings of which go way back. I was a young copywriter in my 20s working in advertising in NYC and doing direct marketing campaigns. My dream back then was to be a digital copywriter. After two years - and the stint in London, plus a healthcare and the death of my mom - I returned to NYC and did just that. I found a job as a digital copywriter at the offices of one of my old advertising clients.

The offices were located in Rockefeller Center. When temperatures dropped and winter peeked its little head, my work friends and I would spend our lunch hour downstairs on the ice, a simple elevator ride away. Imagine a Mexican, Peruvian, Puerto Rican and a Dominican in NYC wobbling around on the ice skating rink. Sounds almost like the beginning of a joke, right?

Since then, we have all left NYC and have settled down in the haven of adulthood in different parts of the world. Goes to show that life continues moving forward, never slowing down for even just one second, in a never-ending stream.