I started my first blog on Windows Live Spaces in 2005 when I was 11 years old. I’ll share with you three posts:
OMG todai wuz super fun cuz i went shopping!!!!!!!!!!! i saw alot of ppl dat i knew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in da morning, @ 10:00, i went 2 richmond centre…then i went 4 lunch @ 2:00…then i went 2 walmart @ 4:00 till 5:00…it was soooooooooooooooo fun!!!!!!!!!!
hey y’all!!!!!!!!!! guess wat??? i’m soooooooooooo bored!!! i think u no dat allready!! hehe…i hav a really wiggly tooth…i think it might fall of sooooooonnn…
OMG!!! yesdaday in da evening i saw a caterpillar on da floor in da kitchen…sooooo freaky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every time I look back at that blog, I chuckle. At that time, I was in grade six and had just entered the late French immersion program at James Whiteside Elementary. It’s been nearly 10 years since then. I no longer use MSN speak and spend hours online chatting with friends—and it’s not because Skype bought MSN. Nor do I get self-conscious about my monolids, giggle about bras, and beg my parents to buy me new earrings from Ardene.
Anyways, I created six blogs after that one. In high school, my most successful blog had 71 posts, written over the course of two years. I filled that blog with the most random things: the experience of getting ear wax drained at the doctor’s, stories about learning to drive, bargains I found at the mall, thoughts about the purpose of life, my struggles with procrastination, “dictionary ramblings” (I would randomly pick a word in the dictionary and write something about the word in an effort to improve my vocabulary), a poem about Pi Day.
I also attempted to create a French blog, but I only managed to squeeze out one French post. In my first year of university, I created a blog to rant about things that bugged me; that one had only one post too. I was quite dedicated to another blog I created, a personal growth journal based on the saying that only left-handed people are in their right minds. I created another blog in first year for a mandatory introduction to business course. My most recent blog captured the stories, adventures, and experiences I had in Kenya this past summer.
Not that I don’t like my previous blogs—I do very much—but I want to start completely anew with this one. Last year when I visited my high school, my geography teacher, Mr. Hammerschmidt, warned me about catching the travel bug. I think I’ve caught it, because I can’t stop thinking about where I’m going next and what I’m going to learn there. Next February, I’m going on exchange to Tsinghua University in Beijing. My initial intent for this blog was to create a platform on which I could share my four-month exchange experience, but I feel compelled to create something more. I’m not exactly sure where I’m taking this blog—quite literally—but I’m going to commit myself to regular posts.
Despite the name of this blog, I’m physically in Vancouver right now. I immigrated to Vancouver with my parents when I was two years old, and grew up in beautiful British Columbia. I just started my third year of university at UBC.
I’m currently in Vancouver; my mind, however, is not always here.
December 9, 2015 update: The name of this blog used to be “Not In Vancouver” and I used it mainly to keep track of my travels. Now, the blog has become more than that, hence the name change. I can still never get enough of traveling though!
