The late bloomer finally gets started

My hands are literally cold as I write this, my first blog. Seriously. I remember sometime in 2005, PJ Cana, a former GMA 7 colleague who, I should say, was more web-savvy than the rest of us in the newsroom, started his "web log." I remember watching him punch away on the keyboard, euphoric that someone had read his "post." I wondered what was there that hooked him into it. Unfortunately, I left GMA7 before I could find out. My next job took me farther away from the blogging world. I was into so many things, learning more about my religion, producing films and magazines for our Church organization, that I simply did not have the time to write a post and respond to those who'd take the time to read it. But then the blog thing resurrected itself in me when one day, a church mate and friend, Salve Duplito (who also happens to be a multi-awarded business journalist), happily announced that her Inquirer online-powered blog was already up. That she was delighted is an understatement. In the following years, my well-traveled friends from UP (Dulcinea, Ivy Rose, Leilani, and Blanche) have settled in various parts of the world (Chi in Denmark, Beng in Australia. Lei was in NY for two years and in Thailand for another two, and Blanche is in HK until present). So they invited me to stay connected with them through Multiply and Facebook. They told me I could see more pictures of them through these sites. I stubbornly told them, "Just email it to my work address, I'll get it through my Blackberry." I never got to create a Multiply nor a Facebook account. This, amidst the fact that my Friendster account has been untouched since 2005. With my younger sister, Camilah, moving to the US after her marriage last year, I started to give Facebook and blogging a tiny bit of consideration. Recently, I watched the Nora Ephron movie on Julia Child and saw how blogging changed Child's life. I thought to myself, there's just a lot of online social forums these days that I want to check what's in it for the gazillion netizens out there. Before I could even find the answer for what's in a blog, Multiply, and Facebook, alas, there's Twitter.

So here I am, enjoying it so far, pretending (like Julia Child) that someone out there is in fact reading this. Wait, did I say I was enjoying it so far??? I guess there's lesson #1 for me-- blogging is something people actually enjoy doing--whether as the writer or the reader. Haha! It took all these years for me to figure that one out! Didn't my title say I was a late bloomer?

I chose to share my insights about traveling, and not just traveling, but traveling and not missing the point. You see, traveling is an expensive hobby. It requires time. It requires preparation. And preparation requires attention to details. So when you're out there traveling, you want to make the most out of it, sulit, in Filipino speak. Have you ever traveled to a new place but left it without experiencing anything new? That is missing the point. Have you ever traveled to the same place and yet experienced it rather differently the second time around? That is not missing the point. I hope through this blog, I will be able to share experiences that really make the travel worth all the time, money and preparation.

Finally I dedicate this blog to my dear eternal companion and best travel mate. He is, by the way, a far better writer than I am, although he does not hear of it. To you my sweets, more travels to the ends of the world. To the covered bridges of Madison County, or the dainty B&B of Wednesday Letters, to Paris, to Salzburg Austria, even to Florin of England. Here's to more travel, and life, and not missing the point.