If there are two things I know how to do well it is to inhale books at a concerning rate and to completely lose myself in the luxurious feeling of visiting a new place. If I had to add a third, it would be spending beyond my means.
My earliest memory of reading was when I was a precocious preschooler, and to be fair ‘reading’ may have been a bit of a stretch. At the time, my favorite book was the classic nursery rhyme, Little Bunny Foo Foo. I don’t think I had managed to read as much as I had learned to memorize.
With an entitlement that never truly went away, I marched into my preschool and reported that I would be reading to the class during story time that day. With excitement and care, I boldly flipped the pages, adopting voices for the characters, and pausing for dramatic effect when necessary.
I still beam with pride when I think of the corded phone wrapped around my mom’s arm while she bustled around the kitchen bragging to someone on the other end that, “Isn’t it marvelous? Yes, reading! She’s only in preschool!”
When I was ten, my parents took my sister and I out of the country for the first time. I don’t think my parents fully realized the effect this would have on me when we flew to Italy to chase my mother’s study abroad memories. I was utterly enchanted by the world around me; so foreign and magical.
It was the first time I realized that the worlds in my books could be real. On our last night, when our taxi cab sped away from the Vittorio Emanuele II Memorial, I wept and traced a heart on the window, vowing to return one day.
As I grew older, I continued to escape my world through literature and my passport with increasing frequency. At ten, I first flirted with Fanfiction, planting the tiny seeds of being an author one day. I traveled with my high school to Barcelona and Paris, built houses in Central America, enrolled in writing classes abroad, and, finally, moved overseas after college in 2014.
All these experiences not only helped shape me as an individual, but led me here to you, writing not just my first blog post, but also my current work in progress, entitled Wandering, which explores seeking love abroad. Within this online community, I hope to establish myself as a humorous, self-deprecating, literature addict and friendly neighborhood travel buddy.
I will share updates on my work in progress novel, a round up of my monthly reads and recommendations, travel memories and experiences, and much more.
So should you follow me? Sign up for alerts about this blog? Well, I certainly think so, but if you need further convincing let me ask you:
- Are you someone who is just as captivated by the opening pages of a new book now as when you were young?
- Do you enjoy literature reviews by someone who reads a lot?
- Do you long for a vacation or travel-inspired blog post?
- Are you interested in the writing process?
- Are you interested in following an aspiring author through the publication process?
- Do you enjoy the ravings and memories of an increasingly neurotic woman?
If you answered yes to any of the above, please consider giving me a follow, bookmarking this page, and sharing this with your friends and family. If you are a personal friend or family member of mine who answered no to any of the above, too damn bad I’m going to pester you to read this anyway.
