About this Blog
I’ve been reading that successful blogs should pick a clear niche and cater to it. By that logic this blog won’t be that successful.
This is a place for me to summarise things of interest I read, put forward my own partially developed thoughts and share things that happen to me on my upcoming travels.
If there is a running theme it’s only that I’m going to try my best to be unapologetically sincere. There will still, no doubt, be many apologies issued given my inescapable Britishness (which I am sorry for by the way) but I want to take a stab at undoing some of the more oppressive wiring that has seemingly entangled me. I’d like this project to help free me from the fear of being called out for my mistakes or sharing my vulnerabilities, and I think here and now is the best juncture in my life to do so.
Who am I?
Tom. I’m 29 years old and a bit scruffy a lot of the time, hence the branding.
Since graduating university I have spent…
Now for my next trick *read: reckless life choice destined to stress out those closest to me* I’m going off to travel the world for a while. Duration and destinations reached are fairly flexible, though I do have the rough sketch of a plan in mind.
I hope to give proper thought to this at some point on this blog, but I feel immeasurably more alive when I’m abroad. There’s nothing more exciting than waking up to new and foreign experiences each day. By leaving I’m fulfilling a promise I made to myself after the last time I travelled to take on a big trip again before 30 but there’s also a lot more I’m hoping it will answer for me.
I find ‘about me’ type posts somewhat of a challenge because I take much more relativist approach to the very concept of ‘me’ than others seem to about themselves. I know myself to be loud and brash at times, and quiet and pensive in others. To pick a side on the extrovert / introvert dichotomy seems to completely forgo an aspect of my character and I slightly resent anybody that tries to tell me on which side of such divides I might lie. I’m possibly just trying to intellectualise my way out of the natural discomfort one feels when called to talk about themselves but I’ll err… leave that for you to decide.
I do believe we are to a great degree the stories we tell ourselves though, and I plan on generating some better ones for myself whilst I am away.
Caveats
When I do post about wider topics, many times I will surely miss the point of something technical I’ve tried to summarise or not see the bigger picture. Im alright with that though if you are. If this can serve as a platform to be challenged and discuss things with my friends or anybody else who happens to come across this place that would be superb.
I will try do my utmost to reference the original sources of any musings, though I might not always be able to pinpoint where and when I’m plagiarising the opinions of others. I have consumed an ungodly number of ted talks in my time. Where there’s any doubt it’s quite possibly something I heard from pop philosopher Alain de Button.
Mainly I will be doing my best to live life to its fullest in the coming months though, so if my posting isn‘t quite as frequent as I initially envisioned, that‘s quite alright too.
Song of the Post
I'll aim to follow each of my posts with an associated song. It might be something which fits my current writing or perhaps it's simply something nice I've heard recently.