thoughts on creativity with an uncreative title

Abstract Landscape Photography by Frances Seward - stunning art I stumbled across that I think is so intriguing.  I have no idea how she does this.  You can see more of her work here. 

NOTE:  I wrote this as a note on Facebook in September last year.  If you happened to read it on my FB I apologize but I wanted to repost it on the blog as I'd like to have these thoughts compiled in one place.  In re-reading it, I thought it was interesting how I referred to the idea of writing a blog and alas...now I have one!  :)   

Okay....on to the original post!  P.S. I have a couple update notes written at the end.  

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"The longer you live, the better you will be able to understand your struggling inner nature, and you will be able to find an outlet for the power that it gives you.  Some people write, some sing, some raise a family, some join law firms, others plant roses.  How we express our sensual, spiritual and intellectual selves define who we are."  - Christopher de Vink in Compelled to Write To You

I have been thinking a lot about creativity lately.   I love this quote about how we all find (or hopefully find) outlets for expressing ourselves.  I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that my greatest outlet for expressing myself is through relationships.   Although I have found myself desiring more solitude in my life (at least in theory), I most certainly depend on relational connections to find fulfillment and purpose in life.   

The last few years of my life have been centered around a theme of community.  After university I struggled with the post-college life.   I threw myself into my career because working in media/marketing demands it and because I enjoyed what I did.  However, not belonging to a community in the sense that I had during school left me feeling empty and lonely.  Despite having many friends, the demands of working in corporate America left no time for pursuing depth in those relationships in a fulfilling way.  For me, balance was elusive.  Moving to South Korea and entering the world of travelers was like re-opening a door to a community-oriented lifestyle and I blossomed.  The further away I was from my work in America, the more I could see how unhealthy of a lifestyle it had been for me.  For the past three years, pursuing relationships and community has been a top priority in my life.  

Of course, while relationships are beautiful and valuable, there are always two sides of the coin.  People can "hurt you, desert you, break your heart if you let them" (truth via James Taylor).   Or less dramatically, investing in people can just wear you out.   I have many personal interests that I want to pursue.  I am sure that balance between relationship time and solitude time is a healthy way to live.  But it is natural and easy for me to push aside any individual pursuits  because there are always relational opportunities that seem more important or interesting in the moment.  

So to get back to the point, one outlet that I feel has taken a major backseat in my life is creative pursuits.  Ryan and I have started new jobs teaching English at a university in South Korea and will be here for about six months.  We live outside of Seoul in a small town and have a very easy work schedule.  We should only be working about 20-25 hours per week and have three day weekends.  I have been looking forward to this time as a period to rest and invest in some creative interests.  

In college I used to "joke" that I'm just not a creative person.   I was very involved in the communication department (my major). I was producer of our television program, editor of the yearbook, and filled almost every possible job available at the radio station.  But of all these commitments, I seemed to be at my best in roles where I directed and organized the truly creative people, rather then being assigned the creative projects myself.    

This said, when I was younger I truly enjoyed being involved in the arts.  I used to write short stories and wanted to be an author.  I loved, loved, loved theatre in high school (I loved the spotlight and always preferred to be leading lady).  I played and taught piano and was involved in choir.  When I started university, I had piano and vocal scholarships which I eventually gave up because as I became mega involved in the communications department I gradually lost the time and motivation for the practice and involvement required to keep them.  I decided I had to prioritize and music fell through the cracks.  

I am drawn to TOO many artistic pursuits.  I want to be a photographer,  a graphic designer, a painter,  a contemporary dancer, an actress, a writer, and more.  But I also want to be good at all of these things, which is impossible.  My sister was a dancer for years and it required almost daily dance lessons. I don't want to commit that much to any art....but I also find it hard to accept mediocrity when I am surrounded by so many extremely talented friends.  Can I accept being a jack of all trades, master of none?     

I have been tempted by the idea of blogging.  I want to be a better writer and have an outlet for my thoughts.  Ryan and I were talking about writing and he brought up the point of how good writing is so much about being a practiced writer.  Every time I think of committing to a blog I face the reality of how I am.  Writing regularly takes discipline.  I have avoided blogging because I have little doubt that I will quickly let it become a pressure and something else on my to-do list rather than a joy.  

I have wanted to paint for a long time and have decided to try it during these six months.  Even so, I have hinting feelings that painting might also feel like drudgery rather than fulfilling. 

One night I was reflecting on why I shrink away from artistic outlets when in my head they seem so desirable.  Have I just become that lazy?  I knew that I truly loved theater and music when I was in high school.  What had happened to me since then?  I started thinking about when I watch So You Think You Can Dance (BEST show and not to be confused with Dancing with the Stars) and even Glee (guilty pleasure), how I am so drawn in by the relational depth and community that is experienced by the dancing partners or portrayed among high school glee club.  I resonate with it because I have experienced it.  There was something so binding about putting on a show in high school theatre.  And I miss it and I would love to experience it again.  

I realized that I was hitting on a personal breakthrough in what makes creativity meaningful to me. Again....the common theme of relationships and community!  

So now I am left with determining how to apply this in my life.  Traveling makes it  difficult to find creative communities.  They are sometimes available if you are willing to stay in one place for an extended period of time but when I have thought about searching them out while living in South Korea it has felt forced and unfulfilling.   I have generally thought that there are seasons of life and this is not my current season for theater or contemporary dance (probably the two activities that would bring me the most creative fulfillment).   

I do know that I have the ability and time to try some more individual creative outlets like painting and writing and possibly improving photography.  I don't know if I will find them fulfilling.  Maybe they will be a drudgery.  Maybe they are worth it as a discipline and maybe I will find joy in them.  

I think what I will do is try out the discipline and see if it turns to enjoyment.  If not, maybe I will accept that for me, creative outlets have to have a relational element and determine to find classes or group efforts.  If I ever do start a blog, I suppose I will have to learn to write shorter entries!  Or maybe not.  My writing tends to be a little self-absorbed and more for my benefit than for others (case in point, this post).  Maybe writing is the one area where I truly am more individually focused than communally....? 

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Update

1)  Obviously I haven't succeeded so far in writing shorter posts on the blog. :)   I started re-reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott today (lovely book on writing) and was reminded that I need to show up and write if I ever hope to improve! 

2) In this post I expressed my desire to explore painting.  While in South Korea I tried putting paint on canvas a couple times on my own just to see how I liked it.  I loved the colors and texture of paint but quickly decided I needed to take a class.  The purpose being both for the actual direction and because I hoped that having classmates would add a relational dimension that would help the process of painting match with my personality more.  Now that I'm in the states for the summer I'm taking an oil painting class and can tentatively say (after only two weeks) that I like it! 

3) When I was teaching my students at Konkuk University in South Korea we talked about the arts one week and on one night in particular we were talking about creativity.  I had found this article on one of my favorite blogs: The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People.  It's a great post....but in a nutshell it says that SOLITUDE is the number one habit of highly creative people.  It was then that I realized I'm doomed! :)  

culture shock

Moving to the other side of the world requires that you stop blogging for two months.  Not sure if you knew that.  

I just noticed that my last post was titled "homeward bound" which incidentally is also one of the great films of my childhood.  Michael J Fox is brilliant even when he is voicing a dog and I cried at the end when Shadow finally shows up at the crest of the hill no matter how many times I watched it.  Those triumphant orchestra scores get me every time. 

Ryan and I are home now.  Michigan has been stubbornly holding on to the cold and rainy weather in what I believe is an effort to punish us for leaving.   We spent 10 days in LA visiting my brother Jais and other friends in the area.  My parents flew in as well so we could all check out Jais' new LA life.  After that Ryan and I spent a week in Seattle visiting friends that we had not seen in much too long.  There was heaps of rain but that's okay because every other time we've been in Seattle the weather has been stunningly beautiful. I somehow felt that I wasn't ever experiencing the real Seattle and this trip rectified that.  Finally we flew to Detroit and have been slowly settling in the past few weeks.   Since arriving in the states we've been really crummy about taking pictures.  I'll post a few.  I feel redundant posting them since they're already on facebook but I have some friends (or one friend rather = Liz) who follows my blog but doesn't use FB. 

Ryan and I in LA with our luggage... which grew from our backpacks to include the carry-ons... partially because of food we wanted to bring back with us. Going to have to slim down before heading out again.  

Ryan noticed that the Academy Awards were scheduled for the day after we all flew in so we went to see what we could see... we inched our way up to almost the front by the fences.  See Oscar?  

Colin Firth, Amy Adams, Robert Downey Jr, Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett (I am quite sure but didn't realize at the time), Donald Trump....and a handful of others.   

We went to the Price Is Right and my brother got called down at the beginning of the show.  It was so so fun (you might not be able to tell my excitement from my face).  We were right behind the bidders so we were on camera all through the show!

Jais with Drew Carey (who is no Bob Barker I might add).  He got on stage near the end of the show and ended up with about $2,000 and some prizes.    

I'm excited about spending the summer in the states. I have definitely dealt with some culture shock since getting home.   More so than last time I came home.  There is something about western culture that seems to creep into people's spirits and maybe it's more obvious when you've been away....the way perfume smells strong at first.   There seems to be this underlying struggle with disconnectedness and discontentedness.   I want to live with connection and contentedness and American culture is masterful at robbing that away.  

One of my favorite books is called The Geography of Bliss.  The author Eric Weiner is a NPR reporter and he wonders why the people in some countries rate so high in happiness while others don't.   So he travels around to determine what makes the happiest countries so happy or the miserable countries so miserable.  Weiner refers to a study which ranks the U.S. as only the 23rd happiest country.  Which is interesting to me because when I talk to some people in America there seems to be an underlying, strongly held belief that we are better off or have a superior approach to life than the people in most other countries.  

The author makes a number of fascinating observations and discoveries but what he finds to be one of the most consistent indicators of happiness is sense of community and belonging.  This book got me thinking about how much our culture impacts our values, what we think is good.  I think American culture is historically steeped in the cowboy complex....believing that a strong individual who can pull themselves up by the boot straps and handle their own problems is more virtuous than someone who is co-dependant on others.  For example, we think it's embarrassing for older people to live with their parents because it means they are lazy (which is certainly what I tend to think)....even though in many cultures generational families always live together and it is the honorable thing to take care of each other.  There are benefits to both ways of thinking but just the fact that we are programmed to certain values is interesting.  And I think the programming of our culture can make real community a hard thing to achieve.   

Here's an excerpt from the book: 

"The self-help industrial complex hasn't helped.  By telling us that happiness lives inside us, it's turned us inward just when we should be looking outward.  Not to money but to other people, to community and to the kind of human bonds that so clearly are the sources of our happiness. 

Americans work longer hours and commute greater distances than virtually any other people in the world.  Commuting in particular, has been found to be detrimental to our happiness as well as our physical health.  Every minute spent on the road is one less minute than we can spend with family and friends - the kind of activities, in other words, that make us happy.  

Political scientist Robert Putnam makes a convincing case in his book Bowling Alone that our sense of connection is fraying.  We spend less time visiting family and friends; we belong to fewer community groups.  Increasingly, we lead fragmented lives."  

I guess one of the reasons I don't feel drawn to living in the states is I thrive on relationships and I know how hard it was for me personally to maintain a strong sense of community within our culture after graduating university.  Working long hours isn't just for those trying to climb the ladder or keep up with the Jones'.   When I lived in the states I consistently worked 60-70 hours a week for a $25,000 salary (before taxes).  When I hear my friends talking about their jobs it seems pretty consistent that just about any American employer seems to think that we owe them our lives for our paycheck no matter how small it is.  I used to beat myself up trying to find "balance" in my life until I left and was able to experience work in another country where I still had time and energy for relationships, for community. We were also able to actually build savings and take long periods off work to spend time with family/friends and pursue other interests (travel, volunteering, etc).   I realized maybe the problem wasn't so much me not being able to balance as it was a culture where companies take all the best of our energy and leave us with very little left to invest in the true priorities of our life.   

Discontentedness is something else I sense when I am at home.   I don't have rich friends who are buying expensive houses or anything like that.  Most of my friends are barely making ends meet.   But advertisers are geniuses and we have been left (myself included) wishing we had more money so we could be less stressed and free not to worry so much. 

"We give lip service to the notion that money can't buy happiness but act as if it does.  When asked what would improve the quality of their lives, American's number one answer was money, according to a University of Michigan study."

BUT

"Recent research into happiness, or subjective well-being, reveals that money does indeed buy happiness.  Up to a point.  That point, though, is surprisingly low, about fifteen thousand dollars a year.  After that, the link between economic growth and happiness evaporates."

I think this is why you hear about poor people in third world countries being happier than we are.  Not if they are starving or cannot meet their basic needs of healthcare and education.....but after that money apparently doesn't impact our happiness.  They have community while we have commercials.   When I'm living in my bamboo hut at the Bamboo School in Thailand I'm satisfied with my backpack of possessions.  But if I was living long term in America I'm just not sure how long I would last before the discontent would start crawling in.  

To clarify, I do not mean to say that everyone in America is disconnected or discontented. Some people with different personalities than me can respond to the culture better than I.  But in our case, the only option I see for living in the states with the connection and contentedness that Ryan and I have decided is a priority for our lives is possibly living in a type of communal environment where everyone works part time, invests in the local neighborhood together, has a community garden, shares expenses (like cars, etc)...something like that.  And people do it in America and seem to make it work.  I'm not sure if I would like it.  Maybe I'll try it someday but I feel like it's an uphill battle in the midst of American culture and it's been easier for us in other cultures.  I'm lazy I guess.  

Well kids....given that I had no intention of even writing about this when I started this blog....I think I've said plenty for now.  

homeward bound

Two weeks from today we'll be on an airplane heading towards the states!  It's been almost 14 months since we were home and I'm a tiny bit excited.  I'm looking forward to a lot of things including....

Because rice is dominant in Asia, bread is often used more as a sweet snack, making it almost impossible to find good whole grain bread.  Even in New Zealand, where surely there must have been quality bread if I really knew where to look, nothing could compare, for me, to Ezekiel Bread.  I can't wait to putz around the aisles of Trader Joe's and buy my Ezekiel Bread, lemon curd, kefir and three buck chuck!

Lake Michigan will always be my pride and joy no matter how I toy around with the ocean in different lands. 

I promised myself after I saw dixie cups of cherries selling for the equivelent of about $3-4 dollars in South Korea, that I would never be hesitant about paying $2.99 a pound for them at home again.  I'm super keen to visit Traverse City during cherry festival time....I've never before and I want this summer to be my first!

You might be noticing that food plays a large role in what I'm looking forward to at home.  Cilantro makes life better. 

Basil also makes life better....fresh bruschetta with goat cheese is in my future!

Meeting Michigan friends for loooong chats over Michigan coffee.

Kinda sorta excited to see these people. :) 

And these people. 

And these people.

Truth be told, despite what it may look like....precious people are what I'm most looking forward to....even more than food.  

white space

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. - Hans Hofmann

You don't have to live by their rules if you don't require their rewards. -Nathan Johnson 

The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give.- Mother Teresa

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it - Henry David Thoreau

Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful in your life - Unknown

I used to really like this book my mom had called Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett.  I liked the illustrations.  And I just liked books in general.  And I liked reading his tips on how to eliminate clutter and how to put pictures directly on the wall instead of pictures on a shelf on a wall because it would trap less dust and be easier to clean (that tip might have come from one of his other books that my mom had that I also liked reading).  

I guess I had a good foundation in getting rid of stuff.  Mom would regularly send bags to goodwill and yard sales were usually at least a yearly event.  When I was maybe 12 my friend Katie and I decided that we were going to de-clutter her decidedly cluttered bedroom one weekened.  We had a trash box and would shout our mantra "Pitch it!!!!!" as we threw out old stuffed animals.  Her brothers whined a lot and confiscated probably most of those stuffed animals.  

The other week we were talking about travel and culture in my high level English classes.  I was teaching the students what "travel light" and "live outside of a suitcase" mean.   Traveling has introduced a new level of minimalism into my life and I'm passionately devoted to not owning stuff.   I love not owning a car.  I love not owning a house.   I love not owning half the IKEA catalogue.  I love that Ryan and I have spent more than a year living primarily out of backpacks.  I love the way travelers pass around possessions as we need them/stop needing them.   Things that we needed we were usually able to borrow or find for free or so cheap that we could just throw them out or pass them on when we were finished with them.  Ryan's flip flops broke when we were working at the Bamboo School and he was able to replace them with a donated pair that were too big for any of the kids.  He needed a scarf for when we got back to the bitter Korea winter and found that in the donations too.  Yes....we get what we need from the refugees' and orphans' leftovers.  But it works out! 

I love not being responsible for repairing, storing, moving and protecting heaps of possessions.  I love the free feeling.

When we were living in New Zealand we bought a kind of campervan that its previous owners had named Steve.  We figured that even if we couldn't re-sell Steve he would still save us money because we could live out of him.  And if we could re-sell him (which we were able to do) all the better.  But even owning Steve for just a couple months reminded me of how much I love not owning things that can require a lot of repair.  He had several quirks and a few problems we had checked out and I felt like I was regularly willing him to work well for just awhile longer.  I was so relieved to sell him and go back to our car-less existence.  

It's interesting how you really can do without things.  When we first got to Korea three years ago and I had shut off my American cell phone I was in a panic to get a replacement.  South Korea is ahead of the states in technology and gadgets and everyone is dependent on their phones.  But for a few reasons we didn't get a phone right away and after a couple months we decided not to get one because we  realized we didn't really need it like we thought we would (facebook and skype were usually good enough). We lived for almost a year and a half in Korea without a cell phone.  I remember one night when I was lost and wandering around trying to find friends cursing myself for not having a phone.  But generally you get used to it.  I like the convenience of having a phone but I don't feel so dependent on it as I did when I lived in the states.  When we did buy a phone, our friend helped us get a $15 phone off the street in Thailand and a $1 sim card with super cheap international phone calls.  The last time I was in America it was a bit of culture shock to see everyone on their smart phones (at least that's what they call them in Korea....is that even what they're called back home?)  

I was recently talking with my classes about advertising and marketing.  We were talking about how advertisers use association, subliminal messages, product placement and color to create feelings of discontentedness.  I used to work in marketing and I really love the creativity behind it.  I still love going to the mall at Christmas time despite or maybe because of the commercialization of it all.  But it's a lot more relaxing being in those environments when I don't feel the tension of whether I should get sucked into buying a certain product or not.  Sure, it's a really good sale price.  Sure, I really like it.  But will it fit in the backpack? If not...let it go.  

Below are some pictures from our travels that I associate with simplicity and minimalism.  For me personally, a shopping therapy trip to the mall doesn't compare!    

Ryan with one of said backpacks. 

Lake Matheson, New Zealand

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Australia

Nadi, Fiji

Polihale Beach, Kauai, Hawaii (camping)

Si Phan Don, Laos

Near Chiang Khong, Thailand

i'm practically robin williams

When I first started teaching university classes I felt like I belonged in Dead Poets Society.   I was pretty pleased with myself.  No longer would the majority of my words in class consist of "Jonny, sit back down", "Hani, are you saying bad words to your friends?  No bad words in my class", "Charlie, if someone makes you angry tell them 'Stop, I don't like it'...you cannot hit your friends", "What's rule number 1?? NO SPEAKING KOREAN!  This is Teacher's time to talk"....and so on.   I've surprised myself a lot because I've actually enjoyed teaching kids.  Teaching was one of the professions I had zero interest in.  When we decided to teach in Korea I was a bit nervous.  The many benefits of teaching in Korea** quieted my initial concerns about the actual work but it was still a relief when I found that for the most part, I truly enjoyed my students and teaching them. Also, I have little doubt (although not personal experience to back up my suspicions) that teaching English is enormously different to being a proper teacher.  But in any case....while it's still not my life calling....teaching has turned out to be very doable.  

Still, when I traded in teaching kindies, elementary and middle school students for college age students and adults I was pretty thrilled.  Especially because the majority of my classes are discussion / free talking classes for high level students.  That means that I choose (hopefully) interesting topics to discuss in class, write or find discussion questions related to the topics, introduce the topics, sometimes teach some related idioms or common phrases and then the rest of class consists of us chatting and sharing opinions.  I've learned so much more about Korean culture and have had many interesting talks since starting this position at the end of August.  The icing on the cake when teaching adults is that you can be friends on a level you can't with children (as much fun as kids can be).  We go out for coffee, take trips to Seoul to eat Mexican food, watch Desperate Housewives at 2am and have meaningful conversations. 

We will finish our current contract on February 17th. This contract was only six months because we are covering a position for our friend Frances while she spent the six months traveling in India, Africa, France and Turkey.  When she comes back we'll be flying home to the states for an extended visit.  After more than a year of being away from home I'm sooo excited to be back.

**My friend Kate was over while I was writing this blog and she mentioned the very true fact that most people who have not taught in Korea always wonder why any of us would choose to live here of all places.  So I have created a short, non-exhaustive list. 

 Why Korea? 
- The chance to travel and live in a different culture.  Living in a culture is so different from merely traveling to a different country on vacation. 
- A community of other native English speakers from every English speaking country.  A lot of us see each other again while traveling in other places (sometimes organically and sometimes orchestrated) and when we sometimes return to Korea. 
- A life without bills (free housing, free utilities, sometimes free food)
- A paycheck that we don't have to spend on bills and thus can use to travel, save, pay off student loans, etc.   Not only are we paid a salary but we get an extra month pay just for completing a one year contract.  Our roundtrip airfare from our home country is also covered. 
- A job schedule that allows for a life outside of work.  This is a big one for me.  If we ever come back to Korea for another contract we will want to teach university again which often comes with three day weekends (like our current position) and 4-5 months paid vacation (during school breaks) every year.  
- While we do enjoy a lot of things about Korea itself, that's not why we chose Korea and it's not why we come back.  We would probably try out new countries and new cultures if there were other places where we could teach the same hours and save the same amount of money.  But it's also nice coming back to a country where we're comfortable and where we know a lot of people.  We miss our friends in Korea when we're gone.   We've been able to live in some countries and to travel to several others and will do that more in the future but Korea has taken good care of us. 

The view from our current apartment in Chungju, South Korea (a smallish town an hour and a half south of Seoul)  It's been really different living outside of Seoul but cool getting a different experience.  

Inside our apartment.  Since we are covering for our friend we decided to just move into her apartment that the university provides and use her furnishings while she's gone which worked great for all of us!  

One of my beginner level classes, although only a few of the students were truly beginners!  Half of them were exchange students from China and one from Uzbekistan.   I really, really loved this class....I'm super in love with the Chinese students' accents when they speak English.  SO cute.  

Some of the students from one of my high level classes.  I had sooo much fun with this class and we became really good friends.  University students are full of relationship drama and life direction drama which of course I find really interesting to talk about.  

Some of my students out at Mr. Pizza....love these guys! 

Ryan with some of the students in his intermediate level class. Our students seemed to really love spending time with us outside class and we really liked it too.    

reluctant resolution

One year ago I was blonde.  Ryan and I had just moved to New Zealand to live with our Kiwi friends.  I had submitted to my first southern hemisphere summery Christmas. I was excited for our plans to traipse around the world a bit.  

2010 didn't align completely with my expectations....but that's okay. We've learned to be pretty fluid with our planning and to only expect that all our plans will change.  It was a good, full and important year.  

I've been pretty satisfied with my anti-blogging stance.  Occasionally a whisper of ambition would run through my head telling me that I should be blogging and keeping track of our lives....for our own benefit and to help keep others more properly updated.   These were supported by a small barrage of "Do you have a blog?"s and "You should be blogging!!"s.   But if there's anything I'm good at, it's knowing myself.  It might just be unhealthy how self aware I am.  In any case,  I knew without a doubt that while keeping a blog is a clever idea and I can easily conjure up romantic images of sitting in a coffee shop typing up witty anecdotes about our oh so interesting lives.... instinctively I know that reality is that I will never have time or feel like writing and within about five minutes I will be spatting the word "blog" with an intense disdain of the added anxiety it has brought me as one more thing on my to do list that I don't want to do.   

So I've been happy to stick to facebook and skype as my modes of long distance communication.  

But because I'm stupid and optimistic....and easily persuaded to do things I know will make me miserable in the long run.....I am starting a blog.  Because my mom keeps telling me I need to (apparently she thinks that my rants to her regarding myself or social issues should be heard by other people as well.....maybe so she isn't the only one who is stuck listening to my inane ramblings) AND because I keep sensing this gut feeling that 2011 is going to be a semi-critical year in the Thomas' life.  

New Years Eve I was up on the roof of my friend's house in Bangkok trying to see the fireworks that were easy to hear but not so easy to see through the tall buildings.  And true to my stupid habit of being more present in my thoughts than in my surroundings.....I was paying most attention to my internal despair at realizing that I had somehow in the past month or so slowly let the idea of starting a blog change from something I was in no way going to actually do....into something that I  had decided to do although I don't think I had fully become aware or it up until that point.  

I didn't make any resolutions this year.  But I am here blogging.  I'm not thrilled and I'm a bit intimidated.  But I'm here.   

(Also, much to my relief, Ryan will be blogging here also!  Yay!)

ten

To cover the past ten years when I wasn't blogging (did blogging exist before then?), a brief synopsis: 

Got married

Finished bachelors degrees 

Moved to Kentucky for three and a half years 

Ryan got two masters degrees

Jessie worked at Clear Channel Radio (Promotions Director)

Jessie worked at Asbury College (Admissions Counselor) 

Moved to Chicago for six months for Jessie to help an advertising company launch their Chicago location.  

Spent 8 months traveling (New York City, the west coast from Vancouver to San Diego, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico) 
     and preparing to move to Korea

Taught English in Korea for almost 1 1/2 years

Traveled to the Philippines

Visited Hawaii 

Visited home for 3 months

Lived in New Zealand for four months

Traveled to Fiji, Australia, Thailand and Laos

While in Thailand, volunteered with the Bamboo School and The Well 

Made an overnight trip to Japan

Back to Korea to teach ESL at Konkuk University for six months

February 26th we will fly back to the states with extended stops in LA and Seattle. Will arrive in Detroit on March 16th.