Blogging and I
I have a feeling this passion will stay with me
forever.
“Oh, it’s just a silly little blog,” was my initial way of mentioning my new blogging project to my friends when I first started out. That was fourteen years ago in Brussels, Belgium. A few years later, I started a new blog called Knowing Moldova. I had just moved to Chisinau with two young kids and a busy husband. Although, I was also busy with teaching and looking after the kids, I was determined to continue my blogging journey. “It just helps me explore this country without being lazy or giving into any gloom.” I would say, so as to justify it.
A little over three years ago, in a new country yet again, I started an Instagram page dedicated to my exploration of Serbia. I called it – Learning Serbia. Discovering restaurants and places, taking pictures after pictures, posting carousels of photos and reels of foodie videos, and even writing for a Serbian tourist website, Still in Belgrade, I fully immersed myself into my ‘silly little blog’ thing. All the while, I continued thinking less of it and didn’t want to mention it to new friends I was making. “It’s nothing big but it keeps me busy. I don’t know. Maybe I should stop wasting time on it,” I’d say again and again.
But, whenever I was on my own, I gave all my time to it. Although my husband knew about how much I worked on it, and although I posted about it sometimes on Facebook, it was largely a secret that I was developing so much passion for blogging. During the low times of missing my old friends and places, and during the isolating pandemic, my Instagram page, Learning Serbia, really helped me create balance in my life. The familiarity of posting and writing gave me a routine I can easily get back into and keep up with. It was the distraction I needed. It gave me a purpose I lacked. It made me a part of a community I didn’t have.
So recently, I realized one important thing. That blogging is not only just something that gets me through tough times or that forces me to explore foreign lands. In fact, it is mainly something that I am deeply passionate about. Something that keeps me fulfilled in life. Something that is just mine. It’s one thing that doesn’t require reasoning or meaning. It simply comes out of the fact that I like writing and taking pictures.
Simultaneously, I understood that I have been suppressing this passion by belittling it. By making posts, largely in the dark, alone, without much advertisement, and even without discussing it with close family and friends. I constantly felt that it was nothing I needed to boast about. I lived for years in a weird relationship with blogging – loving it but putting it in a cage.
And finally, I am working on giving my passion its much needed attention, freedom and spotlight. In the last few months, I have been openly talking about it with friends. Sharing ideas and getting advice from them has enriched my relationships. Whenever I am out exploring new restaurants, my friends pause before they eat their meal and ask me to take a picture first. “Wait don’t touch your plate, let Tavus take a picture. She writes about them, you know,” they say to their friends who are unaware.
It’s almost as if I have come out of a closet, I didn’t know I was in. Yes, I’m a blogger, and I love writing.
Mily
May 13, 2022Love your website! Great photos and you look so beautiful and friendly in the photos of you. If you weren’t already my friend I’d want to be your friend;) I haven’t read everything but your a very good writer with a personal touch. You’re also good at naming your blogs! What will you post next?
Tavus
May 13, 2022Hi dear! Thank you for all the nice comments. I’m blushing! I have so many ideas for what’s next! Possibly something about the idea of “Home.” Have you subscribed yet? Make sure you do, so that you get an email about new posts! love you! P.S. I’m so glad that we are friends already.