“Who am I and what am I doing here?”

A couple of weeks ago I enrolled in a course by The Daily Prophet Post (luckily before uploading this post I noticed my mistake here – I think I’ve been reading too much Harry Potter lately) called Blogging 101 which is supposed to get aspiring bloggers on their feet and help them with their first steps. Today’s assignment is introducing ourselves to the world. I know it might seem like that ship has sailed already given that my very first blog entry went online on Don’t Eat My Popcorn over a year ago but I’ll take this as an opportunity to reflect. After the first couple of months in Barcelona I kind of lost interest in my blog, tossed it overboard like some old clothes you don’t wear anymore and gave up on my dreams of becoming a writer. Thankfully that changed.

Also I realized that when I started blogging, I never treated you to the super interesting and informative “Who am I and what the hell am I doing here”-article everyone writes in the beginning and that you so much deserve. In the light of my blog’s recent revival, I thought I’d give it a shot the second time around. Instead of writing more about my personal life and risking getting all too philosophical here (because you can read about that on the About me page), I’m just going to try and answer the questions the course suggests as a frame for this post.

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?

That’s a good one, and a tough one at that. I’d say it’s for the rush. They say you never forget your first kiss, but they always seem to forget about the moment when you upload your very first blog entry on your very first blog. You can’t imagine the rush of adrenaline running through your veins and filling you with excitement and fear at the same time, all in the one second before you can finally bring yourself to click on the Publish button, because you know, once it’s out there you can never take it back. Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will I make a complete fool of myself? What with all the agitation you completely forget that probably only a handful of people are actually going to read it – your family (if they know English), your most devoted friends and if you’re lucky maybe some of your distant facebook friends who haven’t unsubscribed from your status updates yet.

In the hopes of changing that situation you keep going. And either it works or it doesn’t. I’d be lying if I claimed it didn’t make my day to see that a lot of people read one of my posts and liked it. But I don’t blog primarily for that reason. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I made somebody laugh with what I wrote (okay, a triple cheese pizza with ham and mushrooms might come close). And that’s exactly why I force my dear friends and everyone in my proximity to read my posts in front of me before I publish them. If they laugh out loud at least once, the post goes online. If they don’t, I edit it until they do. I should call it the lol test.

What topics do you think you’ll write about?

At first I thought I’d only write about my experiences while studying abroad. I even dedicated a significant amount of time to designing a Barcelona-themed banner with the typical view from Parc Güell, the most touristy place in the city you can find. In case you missed it:

It was probably a good idea not to stick to my plan to pursue a career in graphic design.

Now that I’m temporarily back in Vienna I had to rethink what I wanted to write about. I’d say my posts will mostly focus on traveling and anything that is related to that topic to some extent if that hasn’t become clear yet.

Why should I read your blog?

I don’t think I have an answer to that question. This one’s for you. What do you like about my blog? The comment section would be delighted if it were finally filled with a little life.

On a final note, you’ve probably been dying to know why my blog is called Don’t Eat My Popcorn. The long waiting has come to an end tonight because here comes the story of its birth. One evening, after we had just eaten the most delicious chili con carne cooked by me (can you believe it?), Christina and I were brooding over what name to give to our baby (i.e. our blog) when we were suddenly overcome by a strong craving for popcorn which demanded to be satisfied immediately. Unfortunately, due to an unresolved case of in-house food stealing we found that our bag of popcorn had vanished. As a side blow to the popcorn thief and because we thought it was original, we decided to give it the name it bears today. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Don’t Eat My Popcorn came into the world.

May it be blessed with a long and healthy life!