When I first began this blog a little over a year-and-a-half ago, I did so with only vague notions of what I was doing. I remember well the day I set the thing up–it was March 2016 and I was hosting a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado, under blue enough skies but temperatures much, much colder than I like them. The setup really didn’t cost too much effort or consternation, and since I don’t ski I had a full six days on my hands to take walks, freeze, and make repeat visits to the hot tub. In short, I had a lot of time on my hands.
What was going to be the purpose of this blog, anyway? I entertained a couple of ideas about a newsy, information-you-can-use type piece on Mexican life and culture, a platform I could use to cast myself as an “expert,” whatever that means, and to build a strong and diverse following, enhance my status in the global community, and even make some money. After about a week, I got over that notion; I could no more do a newsy, information-you-can-use piece than I could go back to work as a mediator or repent of my supposed laziness and sit for the bar exam, for God’s sake! It just isn’t me. I have a lot of information, and trust me, you can use it, but I needed a more relaxed, story-telling type of platform. I am not necessarily selling Mexico, even if by following this blog you decide you want to come here. Our expatriate experience has opened up the channel, the living, breathing story I found lacking back in the United States when I had this platform but didn’t do much with it precisely because there was no story going on.
So am I selling something? Yeah, I guess. Maybe. It doesn’t have to be Mexico, or palm trees, or one of the world’s finest cuisines, or anything brightly-painted or shiny. In inviting you to take a few steps out of your routines, you know, your supposed comfort zones, I am selling you on something. I am selling you on yourself, and you don’t need money to buy. That is the purpose of this blog. I want you to buy your own value. I want you to buy your joy, whatever that looks like. I want you to insist on your own goodness and claim it, whether you do it in Mexico or in a frozen realm of hell. Wherever you find yourself, I want you to stop compromising your own happiness and to be the complete person you are capable of being. I insist on it. Don’t know where to start? That’s cool, just watch, and keep reading.
