State of the Blog Address

When this blog started I was a real whiner.

I hated this city.
I missed my friends and family.
I was unsatisfied with life.
And I was looking for an outlet for my angst.

So, I worked (and I use that word lightly because there wasn’t a whole lot of growth or change initially) all that out via rants and complaints here, on the internet. My voice was harsh and bitter and a real picture of how I was feeling. I even chose the blog’s name as a dig toward my surroundings. I admit it, A Foreign Land was meant to be snarky, just like most everything else I wrote.

But during the last few years there’s been a bit of an evolution. I don’t think I'm as nasty anymore. There’s a kinder, gentler vibe at this web address. How’d it happen, you ask? It’s taken a few things to bring me here. Great advice from friends who MADE me stop blaming this city for the unhappiness in my life helped a ton. Great adventures with new friends that have made me embrace our time here, while we ARE here. Plus a pinch of personal growth has opened my eyes to a few things about ME. And I love that this blog has been (and will continue to be) a record of that growth process.

I guess there’s really no need to change its name because it’s still as true about where I am as it was the first day I posted. I'm still living in a foreign land it’s just that now I know I would be no matter what my zip code was. Seriously, there have been some HUGE changes in my life in the past few years. I was able to grasp that maybe a year ago, when I posted this. What’s foreign about “my land” is that I'm married, I'm sober, and I’m a Christian. It’s foreign that I take responsibility for the yucky stuff about who I am and I want to change them. It’s foreign that I love the not-so-yucky stuff about me because I'm a unique creation NOT because I'm trying to prove something. So, readers, please know that the title “A Foreign Land” has been officially de-snarkified. It’s no longer spoken with condemnation toward my surroundings. Instead it communicates the awareness that I'm very FAR from certain how to successfully navigate this life that I’ve been gifted. I'm just taking it one day at a time and CHEERFULLY trying to negotiate my foreign land.