To Write Again

Lately I’ve been getting the urge to write. In fact, I always get the urge to write but I rarely do it. Usually, by the time I dig out a piece of paper to write down a great idea for a blog post, the idea has already vanished.

There’s a travel writing contest going on that I’d like to try for. To enter, I have to write a 700-word story that falls under one of these three themes: 1) A Leap Into the Unknown, 2) Making a Local Connection, or 3) I Didn’t Expect to Find…

Easy enough! Not to win of course, but at least to enter!

It has also been a long time since I felt ambitious towards anything, so having this little goal feels kind of nice, and it’s a great excuse to get writing again!

Last night, I read through my older posts on this blog, and on my first blog (started in 2011 after moving to Beijing). I loved writing every single post on groundingmyroots. I used to write until 4am, pouring my heart into every edited detail, reading and commenting on other blogs, even spending time to add links and write clever captions for photos. I was freakin’ funny and I had hundreds of followers! I also had no social life…but that’s besides the point!

I was honest and open and I genuinely loved sharing my experiences with my readers. I spent hours editing my posts because I wanted my stories to read well; I wanted to approve of what I published into the world and not because I was worried about how others would judge my writing. I didn’t care much about that.

Then I started caring. And I stopped writing.

I wrote a post like this back in 2016, but I guess I haven’t progressed much since then! Better late than never though, right?

Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic, I feel inspired to “live creatively” (to write) again, and I look forward to feeling liberated.

So, if you are one of my 6 email subscribers and would like to unsubscribe now, I do not discourage you to do so. In fact, I would feel relief knowing that I can just put my words out there without ever being read! But if you insist on subscribing, I am grateful for your loyalty and support 🙂

In the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I’m back.”