Today is the eight year anniversary of my dad’s death. I’m happy(?) to report: it doesn’t hurt the way it used to. The last couple years, I’ve been struck less by how much I miss him and more by how much he has missed. I notice big things he missed, like my wedding, and smaller things, like books he would have enjoyed. Since his death, I’ve traveled on five continents, my brother and I both moved abroad (in opposite directions), and my mother retired. I also spent several years in Boston working at the Museum of Science, and my dad would have thought that was the absolute coolest job. I…
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He’s Dead So I Can Say Whatever I Want About Him
Do you ever come up with titles for your unwritten memoirs? The only reason I’m writing this post is because the title struck me as I was walking home. Its subtitle will be “And Other Pithy Essays About My Family.” It will be my second book – a slightly more sophisticated follow-up to the fresh voice readers fell in love with in my debut, It Starts and Ends in Barcelona: A Memoir of Grief and Travel. “Holliday’s work reads like Wild if Cheryl Strayed were snarkier and had a less interesting story to tell…” –New York Times Book Review I’m taking a writing class and today one of my classmates’…
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And then I got published in a newspaper
Remember my list of 25 thing to do before I turn 25, which I wrote back in April? Of course you do! You’re a loyal reader of An Opportune Moment! (Aren’t you?) Well, over the last couple of months, I’ve been chipping away at that list, and I decided it was high time you all received an update. The first item I’m officially checking off the list is #8: Get paid for any sort of writing. I included this on the list because I thought that once I had been paid to write, I would feel confident calling myself a writer. Well, I’ve been paid for something that I wrote.…
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Quality Content, Dream Jobs, and the BlogHouse
Lately, I’ve been thinking about content creation, content creators, and what I want to do with my life. I started thinking seriously about these topics earlier this month at TBEX, and, more importantly, at the BlogHouse. You probably remember me talking about TBEX — the largest travel blogging conference in the world, which bills itself as “the future of new media” — and Navigate Media Group‘s BlogHouse — an opportunity for up-and-coming junior bloggers (like me!) to live with established senior bloggers for three days of intensive group workshops and one-on-one mentoring. If you don’t remember me talking about TBEX and the BlogHouse, you clearly don’t follow me on twitter,…
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It’s My One-Year Blogiversary!
One year ago today, I published my first post on An Opportune Moment. Over the course of this last year, I’ve interned in Washington, DC, backpacked Europe for 3 and a half months, WWOOFed in Hawai’i, and roadtripped down the East Coast of the United States. I’ve crisscrossed New England, enjoyed countless cups of tea, competed in a film slam, and made a list of 25 things to do before I turn 25. I’ve hitchhiked, couchsurfed, felt lonely in foreign countries, and found out that I’m an optimist. I’ve traveled solo, with friends, with family, and I was even there when my boyfriend, E, flew on a plane for the…
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Weekly Travel Linkspiration: language learning tips, “off the beaten path” travel, and small backpacks
Here’s what you may have missed around the internet this month. terribleminds shares 25 Things Writers Should Know About Traveling, and makes me want to forget all about blogging in favor of writing fiction influenced by my travels. (Don’t worry, I’m going to keep blogging… I might start writing fiction on the side, though.) You know how my sidebar bio says, “I wish I were a polyglot,” well, Almost Fearless suggests we stop thinking about studying new languages as an obligation, and start doing things we love in the language we’re learning. She’s learning Spanish by reading magazines about cooking and celebrity gossip. Katie Aune says that common stereotypes about…
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25 things to do before I turn 25
Today is my 23rd birthday (don’t worry, I wrote this post ahead of time, and I’m off doing something fun with my day) and this seemed like as good a time as any to announce my latest project, which is: 25 things to do before I turn 25 (I know, I’m a baby, and you can’t believe you’ve been taking my travel advice.) I’m a list-maker by nature, and I always enjoy reading other people’s lists of things to do before [insert upcoming birthday here] so I decided to make my own. I’m not a big fan of “bucket lists” because, as I’ve mentioned before, I think people should take…
