The idea to do a joint blog for our upcoming trip to Ireland came to me when a friend of ours said that she was thinking about starting one for her own summer journey. I distinctly recall a good many of the people I worked with last summer keeping a blog so that friends and family could stay informed of their travels and experiences. Personally, I keep a journal, so the idea of a blog seemed kind of redundant at first. My journal is where I go to be honest with myself and God. It's where my heart is laid bare, completely and openly before the Lord in all of its turmoil, and it's where I come to the conclusions that He uses to shape my identity. So... it's a really sort of personal thing.
I initially saw a blog as an extension of that. I'm the sort of person who has to be authentic. If I started a blog, I thought, I'd have to be just as brutally honest and deal with those same heart-felt issues in a public venue. I'm also just the sort of introverted person who is horrified at the thought of letting myself really be known in any kind of public way. As I saw it, I had three options: (1) start a blog and open myself up to the world just as fully as I do in my journal, (2) start a blog and dumb down the kind of stuff I put in my journal , (3) avoid blogs at all costs. My introversion prevented (1), and my authenticity prevented (2).
And then I realized two things at once. First, the point of a blog shouldn't be to take the place of my journal in facilitating self-reflection but to serve as a conduit for sharing my experiences with those who aren't experiencing them. It needn't be so personal. Second, I'm not in this alone. And so, with fresh resolve, I talked with Ethan and the idea was solidified. A blog would be the place where, seperately and together, we could share our story as it unfolds this May.
But what to name it?
- Sam R. Franklin
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