The Author of the Every-Once-in-Awhile Diary

I’ve never been good at writing in a diary daily or keeping a journal. I still have the only diary I’ve ever had stashed away at my parents’ house with less than 25% of the book used. I don’t know why, but it just has never been a strong point of mine. I promised myself that I’d be better at writing in this blog that I was in my previous study-abroad blog, not because there is anything more important in this blog, just because it is a personal goal of mine. It all got started when I had just arrived in Chile and wasn’t working. What did I do with my time? Well apart from unpacking and whatnot, I browsed the internet. My friend Heather, who is the g/f of Christian’s college buddy, sent me a link to her friend’s (and my new friend’s) blog and I somehow stumbled upon Heather’s own blog. Both of the blogs—and a ton of others that I have found—are devoted to the thoughts of expats. I enjoyed (and still do) reading through my new friends’ blogs and thought that perhaps other people would enjoy mine. And if not, at least it is one way to express what I’m feeling, get my thoughts down on “paper”, etc.

I by no means think of myself as a good writer, which I think is one of the reasons that I struggle to write more frequently. I have my moments of inspiration and in that moment, I can write cualquier cantidad (a ton). Luckily, living in a foreign country is typically full of inspiration-joggers. I think life in general can be that way, but living in your native country doesn’t seem to spark as many ideas as being in an environment where la vida cotidiana (daily life) is very different. The unfortunate situation is that my inspiration hits me when I’m never* in a situation to be able to sit down and elaborate on my brilliant idea. I’m trying different techniques to either maintain the inspiration, or be able to write down enough of my thoughts to later detail the entry. (Any suggestions are openly received.)

I’m also going to try to write in my blog more frequently....even if it’s not much. I think many times when I think about writing, I feel pressure (from where?—I have no idea) to write a long entry and really that is just not necessary. I’m thinking about waking up 15 minutes earlier each day to be able to write a bit. The only issue that I run into is that Christian is always sleeping until just before I go to work, and los ratoncitos (a.k.a. my fingers typing on the keyboard) wake him up. Although I don’t really feel bad for him if it is 7:30am and he wakes up because I am responding to an email, doing so at 6:15am is taking it to an extreme. So we’ll see how that works. I find the mornings, when I’m the only one awake, the most peaceful to write because my thoughts are clear and there is silence in my life. If I try to write in on my lunch break, or when I get home from work, there is just too much going on to concentrate on what I want to say. With that said...I have a bit of time alone since Christian had to go to work for an hour or so, and therefore I must aprovechar (take advantage of) my time wisely.

*obviously an exaggeration because if I was never able to write, this blog wouldn’t have anything to it