Woohoo! Hot diggity damn. Has it been five years already? Now, I might have mistakenly said it’s been four years in August, but as everyone knows, I can’t do math – and yes, it’s embarrassing.
So, to get this momentous party started, I wanted to mention my very first blog post! On the 25th of August 2009 (that’s just over five years, right?) I wrote, Ground Control to the thundering applause of no one. Here’s the first paragraph:
In Thailand you have to look down at the ground. You want to look around but you must look down. You have to look down because the ground is uneven, and in Chiang Mai you must skirt the cow dung as well as the dog poo. And unless you want to step on a mess of ants or a pile of trash, you had better keep your eyes focused on where your feet are taking you.
Looking back, I admire my consistency despite no one really reading or engaging with my blog. I imagine a lot of bloggers want to give up because no one is reading or bothering to care. But I really enjoy writing, so I know that is what got me through. Long ago, I read the advice saying “focus on putting out great content,” but eventually I realized that wasn’t enough.
I began guest posting and I started to look beyond the Thailand blogging community. I started to think of myself in broader categories like Asian American, a woman, a teacher, an expat and so on. I also began sharing my photos, so Wordless Wednesdays were added to my repertoire, so to speak. My blogging even evolved from Blogger to my own domain and then to WordPress. My grammar got better, too.
There’s definitely an evolution to my blog even though it was an organic and messy one (and still is). I think of it like any relationship, it takes work, there’s a learning curve and that whole “give and take” business. Bah!
Sitting between Calamity Jane and Typhoon Mary, or in this case Swine Flu Joo and Red Shirt Nam, I am wondering what I have gotten myself into. I am a first generation American living in Thailand. The new Asian American: the ones who haven’t been taught the language, the ones raised in duplicity, the ones who don’t fit in because the Americans see you as Asian and the Asians see you as Americanized.
But Thailand is more than a tourist destination, a retirement outpost and hackneyed travel blog; it’s where my mother was born, my parents met and where my father died. It’s a place that has changed my life at 6, 16 and 33 years of age. So I moved here in June, in search of some unknown quality that I have felt missing, and to have – a good ol’ fashioned colonial adventure.
Yeehaw. See you around, partner.
Life, the Universe, and Lani 
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