What's in a name?

It occurs to me that the name of this blog comes off as an emo-dripping one liner that makes folks hate skinny jeans and soy lattes. While I definitely have those moments, this should not be confused as one. Like most of my better stories, this comes from my Grandpa (Gramp).

My propensity for travel started young. One of my earliest childhood memories is on a flight from Oakland to Portland to visit my Grandparents. Probably stuck in my head because as an unaccompanied minor, I got a lot of attention from the crew. In high school, travel became a reward of sorts for suffering through the injustices of being a teenager. Or at least that was how I saw it. I was international and loving it.

Gramp booked my flights and I began noticing a pattern. I always had a window seat and it was always behind the wing of the plane. When I asked him about it, he told me that it was the safest place to be if anything happened above 10,000 ft in the air. At the time, I'm sure I rolled my eyes or something equally rude and teenager-ish. I was (am) a brat like that. It's hard to recognize love when it comes in such an unadulterated form.

For me, travelling is a way to escape and gain perspective. Having this blog seems like another way to do that, even when I'm stationary. I can have the objectivity being 10,000 ft in the air can give and still be completely safe, protected behind the wing of the interwebs.

Over the years, even as I book my own flights, I still sit in same space. I never checked to see if Gramp was right. Doesn't matter. For me, the safest place is a window seat behind the wing.

And so it begins...

You are probably wondering why I haven't created a blog before. Or maybe you're not. I don't really care, I'm gonna tell you anyway. I find these things to be self-indulgent and ridiculous. But then I realized that I have a lot of conversations with myself. And sometimes they are convos I wish others were a part of. I'm on Facebook (and can't really stand it) and addicted to Twitter but can't always say everything I want in 140 characters. And that takes us to this moment. My version of self-indulgent and ridiculous is bound to be a little better than other versions... or so my ego tells me.

So, I will blog. Not very often and probably not about things you really care about. I travel a lot. I meet some of the best people in the world. And I make complicated look, well, complicated. I'm inspired by folks who can be transparent and am hoping that this will take me a little closer to being who I want to be.

Don't read this if you are easily offended, don't believe that people can make change or are related to me. Only kidding about that last part... sorta. I'm only looking out for the real life relationship I hope we will be able to maintain once you find out that my last snarky comment towards you wasn't really meant to be snarky, just true.

Let's start this journey. And who knows? Maybe Bravo will finally give me my own reality TV show.