My family and I have been in NYC for four days exploring the city on a real vacation. No deadlines. No assignments. Just family fun.
More than once I’ve glanced at my phone, usually at night from the hotel room bed, to see so many content creators’ witty posts or engaging content about a new event or spot in their city. And it would get me thinking … should I be creating content about this New York City family vacation?
While I’ve been here, the news broke about the unfortunate Congressman questioning what is Latina Power paraphernalia. Of course I wanted to hop online in defense of Latina Power everywhere. But I didn’t immediately. I stayed focused on being present with my family.
When I started blogging 15 years ago, the focus was here. Blogging. Just typing words and hitting publish to the World Wide Web. Today, it’s short videos. It’s captions. And, yes, it’s trends. Honestly, it leaves me yearning for the days of blogging.
So instead of gathering my photos from my photos app to create something to say via photos, I came to a coffee shop with my iPad and keyboard. I thought to myself that this is the moment to return to gathering my thoughts for long form blogging again.
And since I am in New York City, why not do it at the nearest coffee shop facing the windows of the busy streets for inspiration. So, here I am. An almost Carrie Bradshaw moment if you will.
The honest truth of staying present with my family on this vacation is that I have been able to also pay attention to what’s going on around us in this beautiful, lively city that never sleeps.
We didn’t come with a full agenda. Before we left, we each had one attraction that we wanted to see. Outside of that it was really just get up and start exploring the city. This is generally how I like to visit cities whether I’m with my family or not. It’s the Type B personality in me.
We experienced the subway, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, we took the Staten Island Ferry, and we traversed so much of Central Park. We took a Lyft or two as well but we mostly did it all by foot. It was a wonderful way to experience NYC.
It’s been joyful and stressful. And that got me thinking about which parts I would share. How much does the internet need to know about our time together as a family exploring a mostly new-to-us city on vacation?
And then earlier tonight while I was scrolling on Instagram, I came across a fun collaboration between a drum teacher and a singer. Both are content creators, too. I asked myself why are each of these two posting online? They aren’t necessarily selling anything. Not that one needs to sell something to create engaging content. The short answer is I don’t know why they are posting online. I can guess from the comments that it doesn’t matter. They are each bringing people so much joy.
I want to bring people joy with my content. This is what I typed in my notes app immediately after I followed those two: What if all my content could be for fun! For good! For smiles! For laughs! For learning.
Somewhere along the way in the last 15 years, I started to work from a place of being so freakin’ serious. Every damn thing needed to mean something. I think it’s the Cancer/MoonChild in me. I actually Googled “Cancer signs that are light-hearted” because I needed some proof that being a Cancer sign is not all about the heaviness. That there is some levity in our sign. And, there is.
I’m happy to get more curious about that levity, the humor in our daily lives, and maybe even the comedic relief in tackling the fight against injustices. Maybe.
And just like that, I realized I didn’t need to chase the algorithm; I just needed to start typing again.
