I'm back, baby!

It’s been 697 days since I last published a piece of writing online.

So why did I stop? And why have I started again?

If you had read my last blog you’d be led to believe that I took a break from writing because I had some writing-based goals that I wanted to focus on. You’d also be led to believe that the hiatus was only going to last for a few months.

Obviously, I wasn’t being entirely truthful, or I would have been posting this particular blog early in 2022 rather than nearly two years on.

I wasn’t completely lying. The “writing-based goals” I mentioned? I wanted to work on a project to compile my blogs from my time abroad and fill in the gaps between them. It was to be a sort of personal memoir, or souvenir, from my time as an expat.

With encouragement from some people very dear to me I did start that project, but I am yet to finish it. I sort of let life get in the way of progressing with that (more on that later).

Truth be told the biggest factor for me taking a One Direction-style indefinite hiatus was because I lost my purpose for writing, and that meant my confidence took a nosedive.

I found myself questioning my writing and my motivation for posting it. Why was I posting online? What was the point? Did anyone even want to read this stuff?

When I started writing and sharing it online, I had moved overseas. I was in a very exciting stage of my life with loads of adventures ahead of me and I felt like I had a lot to share.

No longer living that ex-pat life, and finding my feet back in NZ, I felt like that purpose to sharing my writing had gone.

What I didn’t realise is that my writing was never truly about being abroad and travelling. Yes, it contributed to a lot of my content, but ultimately my blogs were all about living and learning. And I haven’t stopped doing either of those things.

As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and after not sharing my writing online for nearly two years I’ve come to realise how much I love doing just that. I love to write, and I love to share it.

Because, after all, what is the point in creating art if you don’t let it see the light of day?

I discovered one other thing during this hiatus. I’m so grateful to that previous version of me who did write and share it on the internet, because she created a space where seven years of memories had a home.

When I look back at old blogs I’ve written I am transported back to that time and place, and it’s really special to be able to have those moments in time preserved.

By recreating this corner of the internet to share my musings (and host the old ones), I’m ensuring there is a bottomless memory box ready and waiting to capture the everyday moments, the extraordinary moments and everything in between.

A lot has happened in my life since I last shared my writing online. Some of life’s biggest milestones, actually. Gareth and I bought a one-acre block of land and built a home. We took a trip back to the UK. We started more than one business. We got married. And, very recently, we discovered that we are going to become parents for the first time.

There is a lot that I want to share about what has happened, and I am excited to write about moments that are yet to happen too.

As I do that, I hope along the way I will write things that bring you joy, get you thinking, or make you feel like you’re “not the only one”.

I intend to post one blog per week (though forgive me in advance if I skip one or two due to the arrival of our first child!). I’m also going to be sending out a regular newsletter with updates on what I’ve shared as well as other things that I’ve seen and love. You can subscribe to that here. In between all of that I’ll be sharing raw snippets of life on my new social media pages: Facebook, Instagram & TikTok.

I can’t end this piece without telling you that my extraordinary husband built this website for me. (Here’s my shameless plug: go check out Watts Web Design if you want one of your own).

With that, I think it’s time for me to get writing again.

Until next time, that’s all for now.

Jordyn

“There is no joy in possession without sharing.” — Erasmus