On top of Victoria Falls in Zambia, Africa

On top of Victoria Falls in Zambia, Africa
On top of Victoria Falls in Zambia, Africa

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Out of My Comfort Zone Already.... (sooo frustrating)...

Type & Erase... Type & Erase... Type & Erase... Type & Erase... 

It is one week into the second semester of the Beyond Borders Program and I am already out of my comfort zone... The beginning of this blog is how my blogging process has been going so far. There has been a lot of typing and erasing as I attempt to figure out how to write to an imaginary audience. Yes I understand that my fellow Beyond Bordians are likely to read my blog, but I see that I have other followers who I do not know and therefore understand that they may be interested in what I have to say about this experience.... 

It is through blogging that I have found myself uncomfortable; however it was not always like this... Initially I was excited about this blogging idea... I was excited because I have friends who are currently travelling and they have a blog that they post to every week telling us at home about all the adventures they are having (the good and the bad), so when I heard about the fact that we were going to be blogging I thought it was going to be a great experience... However, it has ended up being the most uncomfortable thing I have ever experienced in relation to networking and reflection. Although I love reflection and journal about things all the time, I am not technologically savy and do not do so well with the whole Internet social networking thing (ex. Facebook). I am also a perfectionist and am currently having issues with the format of my blog site and the way it looks.,, I am likely to get over this anxiety about blogging in relation to what to say and more importantly how to say it on an open site.   
I NEVER thought that this would be something that I would feel uncomfortable with, but here it is... my first experience of being uncomfortable.

2 comments:

  1. Brie, I hear ya! I also think it's difficlut to write when I'm not sure who I'm writing to. To help me with this, I thought of my personal goals and reasons for writing. I was excited about blogging bacause it's a chance to keep in touch with family and friends, so I usually write with them in mind. However, I need to remember that this is also for grades and so I should probably be a bit more academic.
    One other observation: the flow of my blog is horrible because I am usually inspired to write by a veriety of things (sometimes technical, sometimes personal, etc). Do you get the same feeling? Does it bother you/how do you fix that and allow some flow? (I'll keep reading your blogs to see for myself too.)

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  2. Hey Jess,

    I think it hard to be technical because I am very feelings oriented and have to work really hard and dig really deep to write with an academic lens. This is something I know I should work on because I take in so many experiences in my personal life as well as through my education that form my values and beliefs and I should really work on trying to channel this through a more academic style of writing. So in terms of flow I find it hard when I try to mix these two styles of writing.

    I hope this is something that you can see a benefit in working on as well. It's all about language and being able to use an academic tone that still leaves room for feelings!!

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