When I started my blog a few years back, I'm not sure I had a clear purpose in mind. Perhaps it was a hobby, perhaps it was an outlet...or perhaps it was just 2006, and it was the "cool" thing to do.
If you know me in real-life, you know I'm rarely at a loss for words; and I often even have something to say. (The two don't always go hand-in-hand, you know.) My husband (among others) would tell me frequently "you should write that down." And yeah...I'd agree and feel motivated for a moment or two. More often than not, though, I'd get distracted or lazy, and fail to flesh it out on paper.
So one day I started a blog. After all, typing is less work than "writing," right? Wrong. I quickly learned that my laziness actually lay in the "fleshing it out" bit & less in the physical/handwriting or typing arena. I veered from thought to thought in my posts -- sometimes focusing on music, college nostalgia, pop culture, politics...but without any consistency. I struggled with the choice of whether I wanted a "blog to tell stories" or if I wanted a "blog with something to say."
I came up with the name "The Good Part's Next" on a whim. I thought it was a good descriptor for my life, in general. See, I moved around constantly as a child, and I quickly adapted to new situations. Even in the most difficult changes in my life, things seemed to turn out for the best. Therefore, the title "The Good Part's Next" served as a decent mantra...a great reminder, actually, to "stay tuned, Kris. Stay in the game...'cause the good part's coming up next." However, it doesn't really describe any of my older posts, and it never actually defined an over-arching "theme" or "goal" for the blog.
Until now, that is...
Lately, I have been doing quite a bit of soul-searching, career-assessment, life-planning to figure out if I'm happy "doing what I'm doing"..."living like I'm living." I need to figure out if I want to make a change in what I do -- if I want to go back to school -- if I want to have kids right now...and the like. And it's a load to consider.
I'm taking a "sabbatical" in July to New York to try and sort some of this out. It's the first time I've ever truly traveled alone, and where better to face such scary and exciting decisions than in a huge and exhilarating environment. I love New York City with a passion, and the city has always filled me with a sense of purpose. I hope to visit, wander aimlessly and just listen to what ideas the world may throw at me. I hope to face some of my little fears (Going to a bar by myself? Talking to strangers anyone? Hailing my own cab? Gah!), in order to make the big ones seem less daunting.
So back to the blog title....I think I may try and post some of my soul-searching here. If I flesh it out on the blog, it may help in forming my plan of action going forward. So, lo and behold, my blog title described my theme after all....rather prescient, actually. But like everything else in my life, it took a few random turns, settled into complacency/dormancy, before it actually bloomed into what it was meant to be.
The good part's next, Kris. Just keep going.
