Leaving on a jet plane, 2009.

I’ve come full circle.

I kept a personal blog for a number of years and was on LiveJournal for a while–the evidence is still out there in the ether, I’m sure–but I’ve not actively blogged for longer. There are numerous reasons for this: a revaluation of private life and head space, a shortfall of time–largely reasons that can be distilled as life getting in the way, which, though bad for writing, is better than the reverse.

There were times blogging did get in the way of life, when I would avoid going out and doing so I could be writing. It didn’t bother me at first. I wanted to write every day, and blogging was as good a way for me to achieve that goal as anything else. I may have even had some notion that I was sacrificing for the sake of art, which seems embarrassingly pretentious now as I recall there was as much (if not more) posting of memes as actual writing. Eventually, though, two things happened: 1.) in cutting myself off from the outside, my writing began to suffer as much as my personal life; and 2.) I grew tired of the sacrifices I demanded of myself and abandoned my blogs.

But I’m back. With a new blog, and a promise to myself to let life drive the writing, not the other way around. I may not blog every week, or even every month, but my hope is to put experience into words and grow as a writer in the process.

Wanderlust is a travel blog, but not in the strictest sense. There will be accounts of vacations, yes, but also of exploits in my own city. I want to see new things, but more than that, I want to see things anew. Wanderlust will be outward-looking–so I reserve some of that head space for myself–but some personal reflection here will be unavoidable. I plan to enjoy the journey.