I’m a hobby blogger. I’ve started writing a bit more than a year ago out of a simple desire to leave my footprints on Earth. Since my travel blog is pure passion and not my career people in my surrounding tend to ignore or at least undervalue it. Do people around us understand the real meaning of blogging?
I gave up my 9 to 5 in 2013 to live a year or so entirely for my wanderlust. Ever since I can remember my travel style has become more sophisticated and now I see myself as an ambassador when it comes to venturing off the beaten track. When I put a break on my career I was led by a simple idea. Scribble down my experience on the go to show a different perspective on travel to the ever-increasing circle of globally mobile people. Since then I’ve been documenting all my journeys while looking behind the touristic track. Traveling and writing fill my days and I did not only live life to the fullest around the globe but simultaneously met fellow writers in the blogosphere who inspired my steps.
One piece that I hadn’t realized for a long time was missing though. And this thing is called recognition. Recognition from people occupying the closest place to my heart, my relatives and friends. After I had spent some time away from my homeland I understood that in their eyes my wandering life and blogging enthusiasm was a diversion in life not worth to talk about.
The story is that I spent two self-organized months in India and as usual updated my blog and personal social media channels on the go. I lived, cooked, ate, traveled, celebrated and prayed with the locals and learned about their culture more in-depth than any pre-organized trip could have granted me. I returned home after Christmas full of enlightenment eagerly waiting to share my travel tales with my nearest and dearest.
Now guess how many people ventured beyond the courtesy question: “How was your trip?”
Well, not even a single. I thought it’s because most of them were not familiar with the country and didn’t know how to approach the topic but I was too naive.
Someone very dear to me, let’s call her ‘close fellow’ happened to be in Thailand for a week for business during the same period I was in India for two months. Close fellow is in tourism and was invited for a group study tour to Thailand. When she returned and later I returned from India we started to catch up with friends and relatives together for the regular post-Christmas, holiday season get-togethers since we share nearly the same circle of friends. So how did it exactly go? An array of questions were raised accompanied with a widely sensible curiosity, like “why did you go”, “where did you go”, “what did you do”, what was the most…” “what was the least…”, “your photos are truly amazing” and fill in the blank. So all the usual questions were asked and compliments were made. To close fellow. About Thailand.
Hey, everyone! I’ve just come from India after two months, you know the land of diversity! And I lived the authentic lifestyle! I blended in! I blogged about it! I think I heard something here and there that my photos on social media are cool. But in reality no one listened anymore. They rather went into the teeny-weeny details about my close fellow’s business travel… Did they actually ask about the color of her underwear she had worn on the third day? I’m not sure about that because by the time I was all by myself deeply with my thoughts where I tried to come up with a reasonable explanation on the situation. Was it due to the ever-growing popularity of Thailand? Or because of the pics she shot with her professional camera? Is she more popular shadowing my existence?
Nope. None of the above. Things took a turn this way because she is meeting social expectations. What do I mean? She is traveling. And she is writing about it… And she is earning money with all these.
Now here’s the trick. While she is enjoying what she is doing she does it for her living. This is her career she has been building up deliberately and proficiently while I do something along this line out of pleasure. I chose to be out of the rat race for a while and society chose not to take me serious anymore.
Our culture neither understands nor accepts that I took a break because I needed a break and went on a different path for something I will call the best time of my life in order to create, see, inspire and learn.
Folks in my life simply ignore the importance of today’s blogs and they just call it a “time-pass” that doesn’t move me forward in life.
I’ve been on the road whenever I wanted to be. I returned whenever I felt like. Did I sacrifice my career along this journey? I think so. Did I give up financial savings? Looks like. Do I mind the past 17 months? Not even for a blink of an eye. While I need to find my way back to career shortly as financials are knocking on the door I remain a BLOGGER who creates and motivates off the beaten track.
