If I thought February went by too quickly, I’ve got the exact opposite complaint about March. Did this month just drag on forever for you guys, too?
Not that March wasn’t a great month for a lot of things. I went to Greece with my mom, FFS!
It dragged on mostly because I was missing a certain someone who had an incredible opportunity to tour the country doing that thing he loves (playing music).
So really, I’m just being a big baby because long distance sucks (but we already knew that from my time in Oaxaca, which I’m currently writing about in gory detail per my Instafam’s request).
March wasn’t actually that bad. Here’s what I got up to and a few hard lessons I had to learn.
In March 2017…
I started OFFICIALLY blogging full-time (and it was scary as hell).
It’s on now, guys–it’s time to sink or swim. Problem is, I’m about as disorganized as they come and may or may not have undiagnosed ADHD, meaning I have many, many days that feel completely unproductive (and quite possibly are, in all actuality).
I tried to express how this felt in a recent blog post where I pondered the question “What if my best isn’t good enough?”
Because sometimes I genuinely wonder.
On the bright side, now that I’ve got a better grip on my finances, I can see that I’ve actually had some far more impressive blogging months than I realized. In December, for instance, my blog earned me a pretty solid $1600 (not including what I earned from freelancing).
So while I still have a long way to go, there’s hope. And I have blogging income reports like these to read anytime I need a little extra motivation.
The plan for April: Focus with laser-like precision on just one major task each week.
And speaking of income reports… Are those something you’d like to see from me in the future?
I took that long-awaited trip to Greece with my mom, and it was everything.
Considering this was my mom’s first international trip, it went surprisingly smoothly. There were no major SNAFUs, no hangry screaming matches, no lost or stolen credit cards, and no serious bodily harm.
My mom loved both Athens and Santorini (as I knew she would) and became more engrossed in her new photography hobby than I’ve ever seen (check out my Instagram for some of her beautiful work!).
We explored back alleys and discovered charming cafes, we got lost, we got hit on by Greek men (some more charming than others), we gained a temporary stalker, we rode the metro, we tasted Greek wines, we explored with no destination in mind.
We saw pretty things, bought pretty things, and came home with more stories to tell than we can count on our hands combined.
When the weather was bad and the Greek TV channels limited, we sat on our bed drinking cheap wine, eating bread and olive oil for dinner, and laughing too hard at FRIENDS reruns we’d both seen a million times (but hey, at least it wasn’t HIMYM).
We did yoga. We took in all the incredible views and as many sunsets as the weather gods allowed. And by the end of it all, neither one of us wanted to leave.
A successful trip if ever there was one, and certainly not our last.
Greece posts coming up in the near future, along with a surplus of gorgeous photos (Exhibit A, below).
I started planning for a different kind of future.
I’m not a lone wolf anymore (nor a full-time traveler), which means planning for the future looks a little bit different these days.
Any trip planning (and there has been some of that) is done on a domestic scale, but the thing I’m actually most excited about has nothing to do with travel at all–my handsome guy and I will be moving into an apartment together VERY soon–May, to be precise! Just a rental, of course, but nevertheless we’re both pretty stoked to have a place to call our own.
As far as trips go, I’ve got a few things up my sleeve for April, starting with a trip to Seattle to see Hans (the aforementioned handsome man) finish up his national tour playing guitar for He is We…on his 30th birthday! OH HEY THAT’S TODAY! Happy Birthday, babe!
Told ya he was handsome…
Next, I’ll be in Seattle again a few weeks later for a dear friend’s bachelorette celebration. This is exactly the kind of thing I missed out on a lot when I was living and traveling abroad, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of them now.
Lastly, Hans and I are Oregon-bound for a few days by the sea to jointly celebrate our birthdays (my 30th is coming right up, May 6th!). We’ll be exploring Cannon Beach, a painfully scenic place I have somehow never visited before (see stock photo below). Our Pacific Northwest adventures begin!
Beyond that, the only things on the agenda for the summer are weddings, more PNW excursions, and creating a little place to call home, right here in the valley where I grew up. Funny how that worked out, isn’t it?
I fell off the travel writing wagon.
I’m only mentioning this because I feel slightly guilty about it…
I haven’t been super motivated to write new travel posts lately and, to be honest, they don’t seem to be gaining as much traction lately as my posts on location independence.
So, this is me asking you guys for an opinion here: Do you miss the travel writing?
Do you want to see more personal posts in the mix throughout the month, or do you like the meaty practical posts with lots of useful info?
Comment below if you have an opinion on the matter, I would love to hear from you.
My Most Popular Posts
How to Find Remote Jobs: The Best Sites to Search
Why I Quit The Digital Nomad Lifestyle for Location Independence (and No, They’re Not the Same)
25 Things Every Blog Post MUST Have Before I’ll Hit Publish
My Best Instagrams
What I’m Reading
Or rather, what I’m listening to, as I have both of these as audiobooks:
You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters by Deepak Chopra
The best way I can describe this from what I’ve heard so far is a scientific take on spirituality and a paradigm shift with regard to our understanding of the universe and our function within it.
Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
A guide for living beyond the thinking mind and creating greater peace in your life by living in the now.
A Few Things I’m Loving
Boost Your Blog Traffic With This 6-Day Success Schedule — OMG THANK YOU GOATS ON THE ROAD. I’ve been meaning to get more organized by giving myself specific tasks to tackle each day, and they went and did it so I don’t have to.
A whole week’s worth of work (with one day off, because LIFE) organized day by day for the busy blogger. I’m so stoked about this!
What If All I Want is a Mediocre Life? — A wonderful article that poses some important questions. I identified quite strongly with the sentiments. It starts out like this…
“What if I all I want is a small, slow, simple life? What if I am most happy in the space of in between? Where calm lives. What if I am mediocre and choose to be at peace with that?”
Have a read for yourself and let me know if it resonates with you, too.
Where to Pitch — This month, my friend Susan launched her new website that helps freelance writers find publications to pitch their stories to; it’s quite brilliant and super easy to use! I’ve got it bookmarked, and I suggest all you writers out there do the same.
That’s all for March…onward and upward!
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