This week I celebrated three years of blogging. This is so much longer than I ever expected. I really thought it would be 12 months, 18 at the most. But in the process I’ve discovered I really enjoy blogging.

I’ve always loved writing. I can remember writing and creating my own books when I was in primary school. And later on deciding I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up. I even studied journalism at university before realising that although I loved writing, journalism wasn’t the right career path for me.

I’d love to be able to write a novel but have never been inspired to write more than 500-1000 words at a time. Blogging is perfect. Short, straight to the point and very easy to publish. 

Initially the purpose of this blog was to share my experiences as I took a 12 month sabbatical but in the process it reconnected me with a childhood passion. Something that had been lost over the years with the pressure to write university essays, newsletter and website copy, marketing reports.

I only write when the inspiration takes me. I haven’t set myself hard and fast goals for blogging. This is not meant to be work, it’s for pleasure. And I’ve enjoyed writing in my voice. To write with authenticity whatever catches my interest.

I love it when I hear from a reader, sharing their thoughts on a post, or to say they’ve been inspired to read a book I’ve reviewed.

Finally, for the mathematical side of my brain some statistics:

• Total blog posts: 41. That’s about one per month.

• Total words written: 23,000

• Most popular post: Why my holiday was not so good

• Most popular day: Tuesday at 5 am (Ok, so this was weird! But I’m guessing as this is Eastern US time, it’s 5 pm in China and 7 pm in Eastern Australia depending on daylight savings. A much more reasonable time. Unless you’re all setting your alarm for early on a Tuesday morning?)

• My favourite book reviewed – Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes. Probably because I could relate to her experience so much.

The point of this whole Year of Yes project is to say yes to things that scare me, that challenge me. So in order to YES a problem, I have to find whatever it is inside the problem that challenges me or scares me or makes me just freak out – then I have to say yes to that thing.

Shonda Rhimes

• My biggest lesson learned – Life lessons as an expat. The lessons I have learned over the past 10 years as an expat will stay with me for life. When I feel lost I refer back to these, especially now when I can’t just jump on a plane and be “home” in 24-48 hours.

• My biggest discovery – I have FOMOOF! Which is even worse now with all these new foods on offer in the US. Chocolate dipped, peanut butter stuffed pretzels!!! Need I say more?

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash