Hello!
I started to resume blogging in February and then disappeared again. I’ve still been dealing with the turmoil going on in my life and trying to figure out what I want my next steps to be. I have been traveling a little and went to the TBEX Conference (Travel Bloggers Exchange) in Minneapolis this past weekend and there, at the closing speech, Andrew Zimmern of the Bizarre Foods franchise said something that finally brought me back to blogging.
What’s great about travel is that it makes you be outwardly focused instead of inwardly tormented. You’re your best self when you travel.
His words hit home and made me realize how much I’ve missed Browsing the Atlas and being a part of the blogging community. He made me realize that my blog might just be exactly what I need to get me through this and to remember who I am.
So I’m back, and I have Andrew Zimmern to thank for that. It feels great already.
As a fun aside, Andrew gave us some of his background during an incredible Closing Night speech. He has a dual-degree from Vassar. Care to guess what his degrees are in?
I’ll tell you the answer in a few days and will also tell you this: if you ever have the chance to hear him speak, DO IT! He’s fantastic.
Browsing The Atlas 
I like that quote that you’re your best self when you travel. I’m going to have to contemplate that. Welcome back! I look forward to more.
Thanks! I like it, too. There’s a lot of truth in it, I think.
That’s so interesting that a well-traveled person like Andrew Zimmern would see travel as an outwardly-focused event. I agree with him to some extent, but in other ways, I find travel to be an internal journey as well, mainly because oftentimes the things I experience while traveling challenge my personal values, biases, and perceptions of things outside myself. So for me, I guess travel is an outward-focused experience that feeds my internal experience, which then feeds back outwards to the people and places I encounter. (Sounds a bit like inception, now!) Glad to see you back, I’ve missed your posts! 🙂
Thanks! It’s good to be back. Your perspective is interesting. I know exactly what you mean about travel providing internal journeys. And then, externally again. Very interesting. I’ve always thought that travel lets you put things in perspective and see how small some of your problems are when you realize how big the world is and how small you are in it. I think that’s problem what Andrew Zimmern was getting at, too. He had a serious substance abuse problem that he finally overcame. But he didn’t tell us the details about that.
Glad to have you back. I think travel serves to take you out of your ordinary world and slows down time. Being open to different experience and cultures almost always expands our lives. –Curt
“Slows down time…” It does, doesn’t it? Time is never the same when you’re traveling as it is at home. I’d never thought about that. Now I’ll never be able to travel without thinking about that. 🙂
One of the many values. 🙂 –Curt
I can’t tell you what it means to me to see you’re blogging again!! I have enjoyed all of them and it was kind of like when the newspaper quits printing your favorite article.
Please stay with us
Thanks, Vancyne. 😀 I think I’m back for good.