Reflections on Blogging

 

Disclaimer: "This blog, Southern Plum Blossom, is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of my own and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations."

So much is going on in different aspects of my life that I have not had time to sit and write about anything. I would love to share some poems I had written a while ago, but I submitted them to a program for a grant and/or fellowship. I can't share them! They're quite interesting and some of my favorite pieces about missing my hometown. A bunch of things are up in the air at the moment, and I like to keep things to myself before I decide on anything, but I wanted to share about my experience blogging my time abroad.

As you know, I have been blogging my journey in Kinmen. But, why? Well, I wanted to provide an avenue for family and friends to get updates about my life without me having to share 20+ different texts about the same things (really comes in handy). I, also, wanted to give myself a task with a deadline. If you had noticed that most of these blogs come within 2 weeks of each other, then you noticed the deadline I set for myself. Creating a schedule for this blog helps me to have discipline by meeting a deadline. At some point in my life and career, I will be needing to make harsh deadlines with no cushion or wiggle room for error. Fortunately, this cultural exchange opportunity gives me fewer deadlines, most with cushions (at least at my school). But unfortunately, that can feed complacency for a corporate job. To decrease the complacency, I created a deadline of two weeks to post blogs about my time in Kinmen and Taiwan.

Have I been successful with this deadline? No. I do my best with the deadlines I give, and at most, try to have the next blog up before the Monday after my Thursday biweekly deadline. Sometimes I don't meet my deadlines, but I give myself grace because this is just a fun extra thing I do. Nothing is attached to this-- just memories and adventures. 

Originally, I had all these ideas I would blog about, but ideas love to fleet when you want to elaborate on them. I find blogging quite fun! It's been interesting to see how I've been observing, adapting, etc. Seeing what I choose to tell and not to tell (withholding), writing this way versus another way (structure/form), and expressing details of my experiences are all different ideas I learned in my creative writing major. I think that writing these blog posts help me to exercise a muscle I don't use in my ETA role. I don't write paragraphs of somewhat interesting experiences for my students. They'd probably be upset with me and complain. I get to write, and that's a great thing!

Especially at times when I don't feel adequate in my role or as an individual, I look to blogging my experience because it makes my experience seem interesting or like it's a part of a bigger story. For instance, I shared with one of my friends that I thought my life was boring. The only cool thing about my time here is just that, I am in Taiwan. I hobby-hop between sketching, poetry writing, and trying new things; my routine is work, eat, sleep. On occasion, I'll have an event or dinner with friends or do some sightseeing, but really, nothing's interesting about my day-to-day life. My students are quite hilarious, especially the ones who visit me in the office. They crack me up with their scheme of hug the teacher, ask for candy by saying, "Candy!" with a big smile, wait eagerly as I bring the box out, say thank you in English, wave bye until they reach the door. The ones who coordinated that little manipulation tactic to make me feel like I'm more than a candy dealer are quite creative seven-year-olds. In turn, a few of them are my little bodyguards. I still can't get over my one student, a girl, flipped a boy on his back because he had my pen. 

I have a second-grade class that LOVES to play, so they'll follow me to my office and chase me or will take things out of my pockets so I can chase them. When we first started playing this game of chase, they weren't that fast and were out of breath after one loop around the hallway. Now, they are quick little chasers, and I'm the one who's out of breath. This one day, a little boy from the playful class grabbed my pen and playfully teased that he had it, so I chased him with a group of other kids. [I must insert that there are 10-minute breaks in between classes where students can run, play, chill until the next class. Most students will play.] He was fast, and I couldn't catch him. At this point, we had went up and down a few flights of stairs, circled an area of the recess area, and circled the ground floor a few times. My second grader (from a different class) who calls me big sister wanted to get my attention for something. She held my sleeve, so I gave her a hug and went back to chasing the little boy. She foudn out that he had my pen. As we're all running up a small set of stairs, I see him on the ground on his back, his arm pinned down by the girl. I was shocked because this little girl had enough strength to topple this little boy. In all my years, I don't think I could flip someone-- let alone as a seven-year-old. All I have to say is I got my pen back. The little boy was so confused as the girl smiled and gave me back my pen. Other than the random shenanigans from my students, eat-sleep-work-repeat.

My friend's sentiments that my life wasn't boring did help me realize that I shouldn't say my life is boring. It can be uneventful at times, but I do have an interesting life. My friend expressed that living in another country, working in a different environment, and learning about a different culture are all interesting things and aren't boring. She emphasized to stop saying that. I must admit, I had to reflect on my life up until this point. 

I had to realize that this is yet another goal I had in my life. When I was a little kid, I had these big dreams and goals for myself. I can confidently say that the biggest goals I had back then have been fulfilled already. I wanted to graduate college. I did. I wanted to travel and work abroad. I am. A few others I don't remember at the moment have been done. It was a good moment to recognize my blessings and practice gratitude. I was so caught up in the facts that my feelings at the times I graduated or traveled to work abroad weren't the ones I imagined when I was a little kid. I still got and get to do those goals I had for myself. Now career-wise, I had a lot of jobs I wanted. We'll see what comes of that, but I am living out my dreams in ways I didn't expect. Not many people can say they are living their dreams or have reached goals they set for themselves years ago. So, big cheers to Jesus for making that happen!

Blogging has been a great tool to exercise my writing muscle, reflect and describe ideas, and share my perspective. It's been a not-so-boring journey, and I hope to stick to my deadline more in the future. Keep myself accountable and responsible!

See you next time~

Brittany <3