2007 has been a good year, and as I was putting together my list of personal highlights below, I was looking back at the results of this exercise in previous years (2006, 2005), realizing that I've been writing this blog since October 2004. Wow!
First of all, I am surprised that I've found the time to write posts, more or less regularly. It has been, and it will continue to be, a great lesson in discipline. I was doubtful at first as to whether I'd find enough inspiration to keep this blog going. What if I ran out of topics? What if there wasn't so much to write about? And even if there was, what if I wasn't so interested in all the chatter, after all, and really only cared about soccer?
The funny thing is, and to journalists and writers of all sorts this may be a trivial insight, if you are under pressure to produce, you will produce. If you're open to seeking inspiration, you will find it, almost always. Creativity -- and by the way, love, too, as you learn over the years -- is a matter of discipline and hard work (plus some magic). Blogging, in this regard, has taught me to listen, memorize, and articulate my thoughts much better than I used to, and it has reconnected me with my great passion (and fear!) from way back at school: writing essays. In the face of information overload, blogging is not only a way to stay on top, it is also a way of staying intact -- it lets you reconcile arguments and, quite literally, find your way through the riveting but confusing pluralism out there. It's almost like a stream of consciousness -- which, in any case, is a much better legacy than just a clickstream.
But more importantly, I'm actually surprised you're still here. This blog, without clear agenda or topic, I admit, often meandering between the personal and the professional, has attracted up to 40,000 visitors per month at peak times this year. Most of them came in through Google searches and accidentally landed here. A growing number of you, however, have subscribed to this blog or return again and again. Some of the posts have initiated longer conversation threads and allowed me to get to know great people I would not have crossed paths with otherwise. Thank you all for your attention and your contributions!
Going forward, I want to challenge myself a little more. When you blog so often, as with many things that become routine, a certain complacency overcomes you. Therefore, one of my new year's resolutions is to take my writing to the next, more old-fashioned level. I have a blog in me, but that's easy now, isn't it? Do I also have a book in me? So far I have a title and an idea. And the desire to collect the fragments I threw out here on the blog over the years and give them some more and some more lasting meaning. We'll see.
Finally, besides my blog anniversary, another anniversary is coming up. On January 3, it will have been five years since I came to the US from my native Germany, as a graduate student who was somewhat culture-shocked when first driving along Lincoln Boulevard in L.A....I really had no intention to stay but strange things happened and I'm still here. Maybe it's time to go home soon, before I forget where that is.
Thanks again for staying close and all the best to you for 2008!
Tim
My 2007 Highlights
1. Jerusalem: A wedding, new friends, and a revelation
2. Camp Nou in April
3. Floating in the Dead Sea (finally, after all these years!)
4. Berlin in June
5. Learning to lead
6. Ojai
7. I survived 200,000 miles of air travel
8. "Away from Her" -- a movie so moving that our DVD player got stuck
9. The Omni Hotel in L.A.
10. 2008
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