Blog Goals

I have kept a fairly consistent journal throughout my life. In 3rd grade, my journal went something like this, “January 9. James looked at me today. I love him so much.” “January 10. I wonder what it would be like if James and I got married.” “January 11. Since James’ name is James Chipello the Third, would I be Kate Chipello the Third if I married him?”

I don’t want this blog to be a, “Hey, I went to Pella today. It was cool. I have to go”-type journal. How boring. I want people to actually find what I have to say interesting and useful. That, combined with the way internet usage works here (I don’t have a wireless connection – I have to save my posts/photos to a USB drive), and the realization that I could be a really fantastic writer/photojournalist has helped me develop the following goals for my blog:

1. Not be boring.
2. Be interesting.

I suppose, on further examination, both of those goals can be applied to my life in general. I don’t want the ordinary life. I don’t want to be normal. I don’t want to settle.

“I want adventure in the great, wide somewhere.”

I don’t want to be the little housewife who sits at home and waters the plants that are going to die anyway. You know?

Every 7 ½ minutes there is a car accident somewhere in Jordan. I know this because of the state-sponsored traffic awareness billboards posted every mile or so. The US State Department specifically advises Americans to not take the bus in Jordan (I took the Irbi-Amman bus every day for two months), and to avoid car travel as much as possible. “Sabaa wa noos!” – “Seven and a half!” I said last night, as the car stalled in the middle of a busy circle, or as an on-coming taxi missed us by about 3 inches this morning on the way to Yarmouk.

I can measure the distance between curling up in the fetal position and skydiving, between being a little housewife with her plants and a world traveler fluent in language, food, experience, and love – between boring and interesting, between wasting life and living it. Seven and a half minutes.