It’s half-time at the NaBloPoMo Challenge. 16 days ago I started my blogging journey, which has yet to be completed by the end of the month. A total of 30 days of continuous blogging for the entire duration of November awaits me – oh excitement!Read More »
November 1st has come around, which means it’s time for a change. Usually this month marks National Blogging Month. After reading Charlotte’s post on how hard it was to find the old group/ site this year, she posted something today about these two groups: BlogHer and Cheerpeppers. Both call it National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Read More »
I was in for a surprise when I logged into my WordPress account yesterday. The following notification popped up and reminded me of a very crucial date:
I knew it was around this time of year that I decided to post my entire life story online for the very first time. But I had also almost forgotten about the first post I ever wrote and the first few pages I created. Read More »
This year marked a great comeback to my personal blog German-American Abroad. While I had somehow neglected writing in 2014 and couldn’t find much time for it in 2013, either, this year of 2015 was different in many ways. It stands for the year of a few blogging challenges (such as writing for 30 continuous days) and other great occurrences which animated me to simply sit down and write my heart out without too many regrets.Read More »
It’s Day 20 of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. This means I’m able to take it easy and rehash what I’ve written in the past ten posts.Read More »
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve gotten back from a lovely trip to Europe and the motherland. And yes, it’s been about as eye-opening as expensive as time-consuming as great as it sounds. More on it to come in detail!
Last month I had tried to complete the 30-day-blogging challenge but barely made it to its third week. If I am not mistaken, I stopped at a disappointing Day 20 (with a third of the writing project left to go). Read More »
It’s Day 9 of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. Today I received an e-mail to recap the past few days with a post winner and a general overview.
I deem On Cell Phone Addiction and the Moments App best post of the past 1 1/2 weeks. Why? It has so far gotten the most online commentary and likes. Read More »
It’s been one week since I started participating in the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. Believe me, I am about as surprised as you that I am actually still posting every day… Read More »
While letting some days weeks months pass by, I’ve come to feel that I really miss one thing in my life. Deliberate but also intuitive, creative writing. Taking pictures and editing these is one Read More »
Yesterday I celebrated my 4-year-anniversary in New York. The day my shaky Delta plane landed at the deserted Newark airport. On March 15th, 2010– when I was catapulted from my German student life into Read More »
UFF! After turning my computer on yesterday and logging into WordPress at the end of the day, I was KINDLY reminded that I almost missed out on yet another milestone since this blog has come into existence.
MY ANNIVERSARY! My TWO-year-anniversary, to be specific!
That’s right, folks, on May 9, 2011 this site has been created and I’ve had the pleasure to write my first post on the reasons why I intended to start German-American Abroad. Topics such as Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and the never-ending charade of New York were soon to follow.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride ever since.
Finding the time to blog. Finding the motivation to write. Finding priority to set everything else aside and devote a few hours of computer time for yet another post that other people could stumble upon. I still consider this great exercise for writing out my thoughts and experiences. Somehow, I cannot believe that it’s been two years already. In the meantime, stats have gone up and down, clicks have reached new heights and depths and I’ve learned a lot about other people’s lives. True, blogging has not been my top priority lately. Photography has been. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy hitting that keyboard and creating a new post.
And no matter what, at the end of the day it boils down to one word: Creativity! Reaching other people out there who are enriched by my posts and communicating with new bloggers who I would have never met otherwise if it weren’t for the www.
I’m really surprised at how fast time has flown by. I raise my glass and say: Cheers to your two, five, or ten years of blogging. I will never regret having ever started and I hope you don’t either!
[To read my post on my first-year-anniversary go to Bloggiversary!]
It’s been a year! Already!
365 days, 8,760 hours, 52 weeks – call it whatever you want. An anniversary well deserved.
On this day 12 months ago I started this blog. My very own writing experience, my little world, my small realm of shelter. Opened up to a then still undiscovered online community. How little did I know how much fun it can be to share one’s own stories with practical strangers. Or how fascinating it can be to read about their daily lives and deepest emotions online, expressed without a feeling of shame.
One year of blogging, and the only piece of advice I have for you is: Do it! Do it now! Don’t push it off, don’t think about just doing it, simply DO it. It took me well over half a year to finally find the time and courage and interest to really start my own page on WordPress. And sometimes I wish I had done it earlier. Nothing can turn back time, nothing can express your current feelings and experiences so well than the present itself.
Inspired by these ladies, who turned their extensive roadtrip through the US into the best read of American history, I finally decided to write this time of my life down. And it was exactly what I had needed. Expressing my thoughts, concerns, and views in refreshing stories – stories found by other bloggers and commented on by like-minded or different-minded people. It has its appeal to see how your own life is being dissected and listened to by complete strangers. People I have most of the time never met but who have stuck with me throughout the year and who I still enjoy communicating with.
My life has been enriched by blogging, not deprived, as I had originally thought.
After one year, I take with the confidence I have gained in writing over the course of 12 months. I have discovered my love for word puns and I am more at ease in coming up with posts or themes.
I am also taking with a new feeling for time management, especially after having started a life- time-consuming job half a year ago and still trying to maintain this blog. Which has helped me in seeing these matters in a more relaxed way: There is no pressure to write, so when I write, I write because I want to. I am not aiming to come up with the next best post or a brilliant text. I simply want to get certain things off my shoulders and I value other readers’ opinions.
This WordPress page and its followers have helped me in setting my priorities and pursuing my dreams, even though you might not have realized this. Each one of you has motivated me in some sense or has opened up a whole different world to me, which has given me the ability to dream. Of better times, of different times, of exciting times – of adventure. All across the globe.
But also in real life this blog has helped me in various ways: In obtaining writing gigs, finding a roommate in New York, and meeting people with passion. Perhaps a shared passion: Traveling, writing, taking pictures, and simply experiencing the 1001 wonders this world has to offer. I hope it has inspired at least one person to start his or her own blog or to travel the world without the fear of being lost.
One thing it has definitely been is a very fun time. The 137 posts I’ve come up with in the past year have all been self-created, self-thought, and self-expressed.
1 year of blogging – learned so much, but taking with only the best. Thank you, fellow readers!
German-American Abroad 