Who would’ve thought writing a short blurb about oneself would be that difficult? No, seriously. I’ve been checking out other blogs’ About (Me) sections for inspiration and to avoid sounding cheesy or disclosing too much information off the bat.
Who am I? Well… I’m a former executive assistant turned flight attendant turned aspiring journalist, writer, blogger, and photographer. And if two or three, or all, of these things don’t work out, I’ll be…unemployed and unhappy for the rest of my life. I kid, I kid. About the unemployment part not the unhappy part; I like to eat and travel, so I need to work.
I’m a native New Yorker of Colombian descent. Sí, hablo español y también hablo italiano y un poco de francés.
Why am I starting a blog now? It’s a good question. I feel like this is very pre-2010 and I’m very late to the party, but I’m going to do it anyway and hope for the best (insert shrug emoji).
Last year, my friend and I took a four-day bike tour in the Poconos. For the first two days, we all dined on our own or within cliques. My friend and I aren’t clique-y, so we dined away from the cliques at the restaurants that were recommended to us. But on the third evening, my friend and I joined the tour guides, a married couple (both pilots), and a solo male traveler, who was really supposed to be working from home (badass), for our last supper. When I found out one of the guides, the only female guide on the tour, was going for ice cream after dinner, I scrambled out of our shuttle van and followed her to the ice cream shop. Another guide followed and the three of us sat at a table on the store’s patio to enjoy some locally made ice cream.
It was during this wonderful moment that I received some illuminating information. The second guide, an older gentleman, said to me, “Vanessa, you need to find your creative voice. I’ll pay to read what you have to say.” I was dumbfounded. “What makes you say that?” I asked. “You’re a good storyteller,” he replied.
Shortly after finishing our ice cream, we walked back to our bed and breakfast. Back in my room, I shared the conversation with my friend. He wasn’t surprised. “You had their attention at dinner,” he said. What the hell did I say at dinner that inspired this man to suggest I find my creative voice? Was it the content? Was it the delivery? Was it both?
The next and final day of our bike tour was a short day. At lunch the same guide suggested other things I would be good at doing, but I ignored him because I was still stuck on the previous night’s comment.
Back home, I sought to confirm or disprove what the guide had said and to my surprise, the few people I trust (my 1000 Facebook friends) concurred. I’m kidding about the 1000 Facebook friends. I don’t have Facebook.
I’m not oblivious to the fact that family and friends are biased in our favor. Most of them, anyway. But it wasn’t lost on me that a complete stranger suggested I find my creative voice when I’ve been searching through trial and error, for a very long time, to find what I would be good at professionally. He inspired me to a start a writing project last year, which I set aside for reasons I’ll explain in another blog post, and I enrolled in a certificate program for journalism and newswriting at New York University.
Starting this blog is a way to bring all the facets of my “creative voice” together. It’s going to be a bumpy ride while I figure it all out. I hope you join me on this ride and enjoy it as much as I plan to.