What Did I Do to Deserve This...in a good way!

I write about retirement, travel, books and family with some blogging advice and thoughts about current events thrown in. I have never followed the big piece of advice given by all the experts. "Stick to one subject they say." I DO NOT STICK TO ONE SUBJECT! It seems to be working. 

It is a good day for me...really, in spite of the title of this blog post. I have been recognized by a website promoting retirement in Costa Rica. The award was for being one of the Top International Retirement Blogs in 2017.  I thought that it was not who chose the list though. I was impressed at the company I am keeping in retirement blogging these days. That is good.

Retirement Blogs 2017 (welovecostarica.com)

And the really good part is, I am not nearly done yet. I don't even know if I ever will be. One day I suppose I will be finished writing. When I am, I may let you know and I may not. I may not even know I have stopped myself ! The door will remain open.

As I look back, I am surprised at how I have traveled as far as I have in this world. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the Beatles in one of his books. The story was that the Beatles put in 10,000 hours of work before they even became THE BEATLES. Getting to know any craft is very hard. It is not so much about talent as it is about hard work. I am not even near that point yet.

Back in the day when blogging for seniors was unheard of, I began talking about retirement. The first blog was called Always At Home. We were just starting our traveling journey and it seemed that no matter where I was in the world, I felt at home. I don't need much. That was back in 2006.

I changed the blog title several times before I settled on the current name and domain.

The only way I could find to connect with people was through memes posted by other bloggers like myself. We would write a story or a poem and then comment on each other's material. Actually, I did meet some very unique and talented writers through that process. I would slip those in on a Friday or a Sunday. The rest of the time I just wrote about my life.

I needed an audience though. I began looking for older people and found grandmothers. That was one way of connecting. But I found that no men were writing. As men like Bob Lowry (Satisfying Retirement), Tom Sightings (US News and World Report) and RJ Walters (RJSCorner.net) came on the scene the picture became more complete. I was glad to have someone that was not a grandmother or a mommy blogger to connect with.

I wore out every subject I talked about and all that was left was LIFE! So, life is what I have been writing about ever since.

A wonderful new closed Facebook woman's group opened a few years ago and I was one of the first to join Women of Midlife (even though that ship had sailed for me). That group now boasts 2000 women. Even that group sees an ebb and flow. Still the core group remains very stable. I have found people that share my woman's journey.

Now I write about retirement, travel, books and family with some blogging advice and thoughts about current events thrown in. I have never followed the big piece of advice given by all the experts...Stick to one subject. I DO NOT STICK TO ONE SUBJECT!

Back in the day when I was teaching school I had a student tell me that he wanted to be a doctor so why did he need to read all those books and learn about the world at large. My reply was that if he only learned about being a doctor, he was going to be very boring! I think that may be why I do what I do.

I invite you to go over to look at the list of Top International Retirement Blogs.

How did your journey as blogger begin? I am interested.

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Tell Me About Yourself Award...for me!!! :)

Thank you Linda Rogers for this award!

The rules of this award is that:
1. You need to tell 7 things about yourself
2. You'll have to pass this award to 15 bloggers.

I have been selected by Linda Rogers for a giant pyramid of "Your Blog is Great" Awards.  I want to play.  So here are 7 things about me:

1. I like football but think it has one too many quarters.
2. My husband reads the newspaper to me.  I really can read it myself but he like to read out loud and I don't mind listening.  I have actually learned a great many things from him.
3. My cat used to have the name "trailer trash" but I renamed him RV.  I began to think the first name was not nice.  He adopted us in Corpus Cristi TX in a really bad trailer park.
4. We just moved.
5. I love to listen to myself talk and write.  I guess they go hand in hand.
6. I always sleep on the right side of the bed...it turns out I can't sleep on the other side.
7. I am a mother, grandmother, wife and teacher.  They are all pretty much the same so I decided to introduce them in a clump.  

I have nominated the following blogs:

Boomer Girls Guide
The Casablanca Tranformation
Just a Thought
Frugally Retired in Texas
Being Retired
No More Spending
Growing Old with Grace
Houseless Living
Murphy's Mom
Making Sense of Cents

I will add the other 5 later.  I need to go to bed.  Have fun!

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