I've been a blogger for a long time. I started my first blog in the summer of 2012. It was a short-lived book blog that sucked all my joy out of reading. A few months later, I started publishing my online journal under the name Picking up the Pieces, which was replaced by the prototype of Lost in Translation in late 2015. My blog as you know it has been around since February 2017. Coincidentally, I lost my motivation to blog around the time of this blog's launch. I had other things on my mind: I dropped out of college, went to Southeast Asia, started a job, went to university... Blogging was definitely on the backburner, even though I still published a lot of posts during my gap year. I went on long, unannounced breaks, got frustrated with all things Internet.
Then 2019 started, and things changed. That little spark of motivation was back. I wanted to blog. Not just that, I wanted to be active in the blogging community as well. So I gave the whole thing another try, only to find myself lost in the big scary blogosphere.

One of the things that used to make me feel at home in the blogging community seems to be on the verge of extinction now: the Twitter chat. There used to be at least two a day in 2017, but times have changed and I'm having trouble adapting. Last year the chat was more or less replaced by the 'follow train'. Someone would start the train by tweeting their followers to retweet and follow everyone who does the same. This does not work for me at all. I hate it when my feeds feel cluttered with tweets I'm not interested in, so I always take some time to consider following someone. If I've never talked to you, know nothing about you and am not interested in you, I'm not going to follow you. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but be honest: if you're a total homebody, would you like to hear me talk about the wonderful things about traveling the world all day long? Probably not, but that's the situation you'll find yourself in after doing lots of follow trains.
Although follow trains aren't as popular anymore, returning to Twitter for blogging purposes has been weird for me. My mind still does chats from my small account, but the platform changed a lot during the follow train period. And to be honest, I am not quite sure how to be myself again in this changed blogging world.

Twitter wasn't the only thing that changed while I didn't have my head in the game though. My content, inconsistent as it was, and my attitude towards it changed too. From early 2017 onwards, I always felt like my blog wasn't good enough. I saw my posts as stories that I wanted to tell, whereas travel posts by other bloggers read more like reviews and advice. I often tried to emulate that or combine those two writing styles, but I always ended up hating whatever I'd written. Giving advice or writing a review on the places I'd stayed at just isn't me, and I've accepted that. I'm a storyteller and that's cool too. Whenever I post now, I hit that publish button because I want to share a story with the world. It feels much better that way. I started out doing this on Instagram in late 2018, which actually led to something I'd never experienced before: becoming a brand ambassador.

Apparently following my heart in terms of content creation led to something I'd always known was a possibility: brand deals and ambassadorships. To be honest, I thought that just wouldn't be for me, as my blog never fit in. So right when I'd accepted my blog and aim for it, a brand ambassadorship hit me like a sudden dizzy spell and I was confused about the whole blogging thing once again. Was I even ready for that? I was afraid I'd look like I was selling my soul. I'd seen plenty of bloggers jump on opportunities that didn't fit their brand or personality and I didn't want to make that mistake. For hours, I researched the brand and discussed with friends and families if it'd be a good fit for my blog and Instagram. Although the product did fit my "brand", I still had some moral and ethical demands. Since I didn't think this deal would work out at the time, I saw it as a learning experience and used the opportunity to jot down what I'm looking for in a brand before I partner up with them. Of course their product has to be of great quality, but I'd also like to see that they donate to charity (preferably something in the field of environmental protection). I researched some more. Checked some things. And somehow became a brand ambassador despite still being completely lost in the world of blogging!

In December I sealed the deal and became a brand ambassador for Capitola Watches. You see, back when I was still a teacher, I realized I needed a watch because the clock in my classroom never worked. This was in late 2016. I never got around to buying a watch. Talk about procrastinating. Then I got a message from Capitola and saw exactly the kind of watch I was looking for, of which a percentage of the price would be donated to the WWF. So I got on board and became so overwhelmed that I made a mistake with the promo code. You can use the code ENVY10 for a discount of 15% on your purchase (the logic is very Envy-worthy here).


Of course I'm still a bit nervous about presenting myself as an ambassador. Not everyone with an internet connection is in favor of people like me teaming up with brands. It's another thing that I have to figure out this year, just like the Twitter thing, just like my own attitude towards the things I write. But I think I will be fine. I've taken it step by step up until this point and think it's worked out okay. I'll worry about the next blogging challenge when I'm faced with it.

I think blogging has never been truly easy. It wasn't easy in 2012 and it isn't easy now. But at least I now know what I stand for and how I want my blog to be run. Holding on to my old social media tactics might not get me far, sticking to storytelling might not make me popular, but it makes me happy. If the time comes for a brand deal or something like it, I know when to say 'no thanks'. I've been doing everything with only half of my heart for a long time, but not anymore. I've figured the basics out. Now I'm ready for more.