ME ME MEME

I’m fairly new to blogging, so when AC “tagged” me to be the next blogger to answer the 23^rd and 5^th question—one of countless memes floating around—I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. Meme? What’s that? Well, being the google-savvy computer user that I am, I looked it up. It’s an example of one of those things where an unusual—but appropriate—word is picked up by the general population for everyday use. A meme is an idea, a cultural token, passed from person to person . . . or, these days, from blog to blog. In the blogging world, memes are often used as inspirations for entries . . . an idea I find kind of amusing. After all, blogs are for people who have something to say, and if you don’t have anything to say . . .

Anyway, this meme, the 23^rd and 5^th question, sends the blogger to the 5^th sentence of their 23^rd post. I—logically—chose not to count the pictures I’d posted on their own as posts (except for a couple where I went a little nutso on the captions), and thus I found my sentence:

On past trips, I have had some valuable insights into my everyday life, and this trip was no exception.

Unlike AC, this sentence is, in fact, one of the foundation reasons I’m writing my blog (which makes me wonder if there’s something about creative flow that makes 23^rd and 5^th likely to be topical? Is AC’s sentence atypical? Or is mine?). Not only does travel afford endless opportunities for learning new things about new people/places/things, but the act of stepping out of day-to-day life encourages—almost forces—me to see myself from a new perspective. For example, if I find myself overwhelmingly happy about being somewhere—hiking through Greece, attending Spamalot in New York City, skiing as fast as I can down a slope at Sun Peaks—I often stop to take a moment to think about home and if there’s some particular reason why I’m not so happy there. Obviously, vacations set one up to be happy and I’m no exception . . . but even so, I’ve frequently found that the distance—psychological being more important than physical—has led me to change some habits in my day to day life that make being home happier, more like being on vacation.

I say, folks, if you’re miserable in your day to day life, and live for those getaways, no matter how long or short, take stock. What can you change?

Tag, Chiara, you’re it . . .