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Greetings, and happy new year from your friendly, neighborhood travel enthusiast! I am so excited to celebrate the 2 year anniversary of Lannie’s Food & Travel blog! A lot has happened in the last two years, and the original reason I started a blog has mildly changed since then, so I figured I should write a post about why my blog continues to exist.
Back when I started the blog in 2018, I recently completed a 2 year stint working in Singapore. I was unemployed and I had just started a Master’s program based in Vienna. Fast forward to the end of 2018, and I finally got a job in… (prepare yourself) Afghanistan! Yes, it’s true. For most of 2019, I had been living and working in Kabul, while going to school at the same time.
Working in Afghanistan, whilst dangerous for its many reasons, affords you a few benefits in life. Chief among them is a thing we call “R&R” (rest and relaxation)… a break from life in a conflict zone, which is both mandatory and subsidized. On top of that, you have tons of leave days and an entire world at your fingertips. So, my traveling and my adventures didn’t stop and won’t stop.
There is, of course, the question of why I travel blog. As I go to more and more places, and engage with more people in the travel communities on Twitter and Instagram, I realize that my travels offer a glimpse into a world most people do not see with their own eyes. People tell me that they live vicariously through me and my adventures. Not everyone is blessed with free time and the available budget to travel – I get that. So this is me, sharing a slice of the world, with the world.
I recognize that I did not blog much in 2019. Now that school is over, I don’t have to spend every weekend doing homework or writing my thesis. 2020 is the year that I’ll be focusing on travel blogging! This means that I’ll try to catch up on posts about my previous adventures and update old posts. If there are things that you want to see or hear about or would like me to update, let me know! Drop a comment below and throw some ideas out there.
Let me conclude this post with a list. Around my birthday, I made a list of things that I wanted more or less of in the next year. I’ll share that list so that you know my priorities for the year:
More
- Laughter
- Smiles
- Nature
- Acceptance in life
- Motivation to accomplish things
- Appreciation for those closest to me
- Gratitude for life
- Yoga
- Cooking
- Hugs
Less
- Cities
- Stress over things I can’t change
- Being hard on myself
- Assumption
- Excuses
Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.ย She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!ย She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.
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i really appreciated this post! Its. We dont often get to see personal posts such as this these days while bloggers are busy writing to do lists. Its great to hear more about your journey. And love your less list -Stress over things I canโt change and -Being hard on myself. Want to adopt those too
Itโs true – we all need a little less self judgment and a little more self kindness! We need to start somewhere, so this year might as well be that year ๐ Iโd be curious to see what else makes it on to your list!
This was interesting to read. I only know you via twitter, so it is good to get a little “meat on the bones”. I love that your top to do more of for the year includes laughter smiles and nature xx
Hi Kerry! Thank you for reading. ๐ Itโs so true about twitter friends, you know them, but thereโs still lots to learn! Wishing you a wonderful 2020, hopefully full of laughter, smiles and nature too ๐