One of the motivating events that’s coming up for me, this week, will be to travel to St. George, Utah, for the 2019 UWHEN (Utah Women in Higher Ed Network) Conference, where I’ll be presenting to other women leaders within university & college administration on the benefits of social media when building one’s personal brand. Of course, different social media channels support different purposes, audiences, & modes of communication tied to one’s image. For me, I’ve found that by combining my Twitter posts, blog entries, and LinkedIn shares (when relevant) can help to extend my reach. A big part of my recent writing work has centered on change, as I’ve transitioned into a new organization, network, & geographical location in Utah. So, things are coming together.

On the way to St. George (can’t help but write… “As I was on my way to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives…”), Zion National Park & its stunning red rock landscapes will be a convenient stop, which has me pretty excited.

When I think of the Old West, spires & rusty crags pierce the sky with ledge & hardy bushes & shrubbery that can survive desert-like climes. The gradations of oranges & reds crusted into the sediment structures tower above valleys of trees, sedge, & grasses. The views appear to mimic the Grand Canyon but at smaller scale, & since I’ve seen neither place before I’m thrilled to observe more natural wonders in such a different place. For example, Waimea Canyon on Kauai shows a similar landscape structure, with different colors & vegetation. And Quechee Gorge, VT, in the Northeast looks entirely different with pine trees & granite slabs. Those landscapes I do know, so I thrill at the thought of seeing something entirely new to me.

Only recently have I found out just how many films have been shot in Utah. So many iconic places. It’s neat to recognize scenes from books & film embedded in my imagined sense of the “West.” While I’ve imagined these places, I’ve yet to see many of them.

And I’m a big fan of road trips. Maybe it was my family’s practice of Sunday drives, or how my father loved to take motor-trips to other states, mainly because we were a lot of kids & it was cheaper entertainment to fill the gas tank? Or how we’d play navigation games where we would just explore, using the sun & a sense of direction to wend our way down dirt roads to discover things we never knew were there? A game of exploration, finding the highest topological sites or nearest bodies of water.

That’s also probably why I like trains so much, I think. You get to see things you can see in no other way.

Of course, until we leave for our adventure, I’ll be working on the presentation, which feels kind of meta, here. Writing about how I’m presenting on writing about myself & career in order to reach audiences, in order to reach audiences about how they can write about themselves & their careers to reach audiences. And so on. But it’s a wonderful thing, what’s been resulting from my opening up more about myself on this blog. I’m finding that people are connecting with my pieces, & I’m reaching deeper levels of understanding about myself.

Like the layers of red rock that appear in these images, so too do I find different aspects, shades of myself, as I mine deeper into my feelings, which I’m so apt to avoid. As of late, I’ve been really struggling to connect with my closest family & friends. One positive step has been to set up travel for my mother & niece to come visit, later this month, & to book our annual trip to Rockport, MA, for June. In September, Yellowstone with extended family is on the docket, so there’s lots to do in upcoming months.

And so, more pictures to come later this week… As spring continues to approach, local travel will figure more prominently. I’m looking forward to wearing my hiking boots & getting back on the trails to see the beauty only Nature can create, in spectacular Technicolor & Kodachromatic displays. My memory hearkens back to those Viewmaster reels my parents collected at national parks, & how I’d click through the images showing Old Faithful & mammoth waterfalls at Yellowstone–where we will be visiting as a family in September for a week!

It’s exciting to be able to share these things with my little one in a way I never was able to experience with my family, the way my older siblings did with our parents. So, I treasure these opportunities to explore & to see the things I only dreamed about as a kid. Funny how things can change with time. We make our own way, don’t we?