I’ve decided to kick my blog back into gear by doing the Zero to Hero Blogger challenge, hence the fancy new badge on the right! It started on the 1st of January but I only saw it a few days ago, so I’m going back and doing each challenge from day 1.

When I started this blog it was to chart my travels. I did a fair amount of traveling a few of years ago, but not lately. I must say that I miss traveling. I wish I had the money to travel at will. With the drop in my travels, so did my blogging. Not blogging eventually got to be a habit, even when I DID travel!

Day 1 of the challenge is to introduce myself. When I started Wide Eyed in Wonder back in January of 2012 I didn’t write a “Why am I blogging? post”. Even though I have an About Me page, I certainly didn’t do a proper introduction as to the Y of this blog and Y you should read my blog. I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, so Y should you read mine?

So here is my intro…

I keep a personal journal. It’s personal and therapeutic in a different way. When I’ve dealt with what drove me to write in the journal, I tear the pages and burn them as a symbol of closure. Blogging serves a different purpose. There’s something about seeing my writing in print, published, even if it’s self-published. This is the future. Gone are the days of an elite group of people whose books got published, read in schools and analysed at ‘varsity. There is still room for that, sure. But how do we know that there aren’t Shakespeares, Donnes and Dickens’s out there who just can’t get published?

What will I write about? Well, I will write about traveling, when I travel. Seeing new things. Seeing new things with new eyes and wide eyed wonder. Experiencing new things with wide eyed wonder. I’m not the type of blogger that writes about their day or what made them upset. I don’t have kids so I’m not a Mommy-blogger which has huge audiences out there (I confess to enjoying reading Mommy-blogs though :-)). I don’t get invites to openings and shows, so I can’t categorise myself as a Lifestyle-blogger. This is a personal blog, it will grow and evolve as I grow and evolve. I love writing. I love delivering speeches, talks and presentations. Maybe I’ll test some of these on this blog. I love humour and entertaining people. I hope to develop these writing skills here.

I would love to connect with like-minded people who also love writing and reading and seeing the funny side of life. It’s never a good idea to take oneself too seriously. I’d also love to connect with fellow Toastmasters. I’ve been a Toastmaster for many years and there’s nothing better than the adrenalin rush of standing in front of an audience and delivering a speech. Some people bungee-jump or sky-dive for their adrenalin kicks. I speak in public.

If I blog successfully throughout 2014, what do I hope to accomplish? Fame and fortune! A publishing deal! My own talk show! Readers that will actually leave me comments. Seriously though…I want to tell my story; I want to tell many stories; I’d like to start conversations and get to know other people’s stories as well.

Ultimately, with this challenge I want to make blogging a habit once again!