So how was your year? For me, 2012 was a resounding “not bad, not bad at all.” Most importantly, my girls thrived. Elder Daughter started university and fell in love. Younger Daughter also fell in love (with a horse, but who am I to judge?) Chef Boyardee and I still have all our hair, teeth, and mental faculties. We’re healthy and happy, which is always worth celebrating.
2012 was the year I got to shake the dust off my passport and travel to Singapore (for spiritual growth) and The Netherlands (for work.) It was the year I got published (in the expat anthology Forced to Fly 2.) It saw me take a blog post about fake snow in Singapore to the airwaves, thanks to CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera.
Blog-wise, 2012 was a mixed bag. I wrote 80 posts this year, 81 if you count this one. The most popular ones were:
1. Become an Ugly Expat in 12 easy steps (posted February 2011)
2. Expat women in Singapore: The skinny on being skinny (posted April 2012)
3. What you need to know about The Big Five and expat adjustment (posted April 2011)
4. The 10 worst things about being an expat wife (posted October 2010)
5. An expat in France: café culture shock (posted May 2011)
I haven’t quite decided where to go with I Was An Expat Wife in 2013. I’ll probably just make it up as I go along, as usual. But I discovered something startling today: I wrote roughly 91,000 words in 2012, 38,000 of which were for this blog. That’s a book (or two!) And that’s given me something to think about….
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope 2013 is good to you and yours.
I discovered your Blog searching on the web..Its a breath of fresh air to read it. I have recently turned into an expat wife myself, and just landed in Panama with my husband, my toddler and my two dogs. Im excited but not ignorant of the challenges of being “everything” in another country..Thanks for sharing your thoughts, experiences and ideas and I look forward to this new experience….and to reading more posts on your Blog..! The best for 2013. Maria Isabel Datiz
Maria, yours was my first comment of 2013 and after reading it, I have the feeling this year’s going to be great! Good luck in Panama and thanks so much for the lovely comment — a wonderful start to the new year.
Write it Maria!!!! Set that for your goal for 2013, a book!
http://itsabouttakingthejourney.blogspot.com
Yes ma’am! I hereby promise to think about it very, very hard.
Think VERY hard, Maria! Have you written it down yet?
Can’t …take … the pressure ….
Funny that about how many words you wrote. I calculated the same thing – and thought the same thing: hey, if I can write like that, maybe there’s a book in there… The things you learn while blogging… Here’s to a Happy New Year.
Check out what Sine has to say about that below. Maybe it’s not possible to do it all? We’ll see.
I think you can …
Wasn’t there a little train who said that?
Exactly what I was thinking! I’ve got the book if you want to borrow it
Always good for positive reinforcement…
I’ll keep it in mind.
My ears are pricking up at the “book” word ….
Oh Judy, put your ears down before you hurt yourself! LOL!
Wow! You’ve now got me heading to my blog to count the words. Definitely food for thought. I’ve long argued that the blog is what gives us material for our books, but I’ve also long suspected that writing the blog is what keeps us from writing our books:-)
But if you reframed it as just writing an extra 800 word post a week, you’d have a book by the end of the year. (She says innocently.)
Yep, in theory… But always too much happening to want to blog about. Like the amazement of shopping in the U.S. again after 3 years Africa. I think I went a little bit overboard today:-). I felt like a kid on an Easter egg hunt.
Hi Maria, I wish you all the best to you and your family. Please, keep up the great work on this blog and write, write, write as much as you can … A book … what a great idea … you already know what I think about it … It is a wonderful goal for 2013!
Véronique, you must be psychic — I was literally just wondering how things are going for you in Shanghai. The book is starting to become a definite “maybe!” Bonne année to you and your family.
Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it!