Ok, But What Do YOU Want To Know?!
Okay, so I've been thinking about this blog lately.
I've spent the last several posts talking about Ireland, immigration, Irish history, planning this ridiculous transatlantic life change, school, work, and basically whatever else has been taking up way too much space in my brain lately. And I actually really enjoy doing that. I like researching things, falling down rabbit holes, figuring out how things work, and then coming back and going, "Okay, so apparently THIS is how this works..." But I've realized something.
It can't always just be me talking at you.
I started this blog because I wanted somewhere to document this whole process of trying to get from Oregon to Ireland and, hopefully, eventually build a life there. Along the way, I've ended up researching and learning about a hell of a lot more than I expected. Immigration, jobs, housing, school, travel, money, Irish history, culture, and all the random little things that come up when you're trying to move your entire life across an ocean. But I don't want this to just be me constantly putting information out there and hoping somebody happens to find it.
I'd actually like to hear from the people reading it.
If you're following, just found me, stumbled across one of my posts through a search engine, or you're one of those people who somehow ended up here and I have no idea how you found me, what do you want to know?
Is there something about Ireland you've always been curious about? Something immigration-related that you've never been able to make sense of? Do you want to know more about the Working Holiday Authorisation, what it's actually like trying to plan an international move from the US, or what it's like doing all of this as a trans guy?
Maybe you want to know more about school, cybersecurity, neurodivergence, travel planning, the dogs, money, Irish culture, or just the general insanity of trying to completely redesign your life while still having to go to work and pay your bills.
Ask me. Seriously.
You can leave a comment right here on this post. If you'd rather ask me privately, you can email me through the Contact page on my website. And if you'd rather find me somewhere else, my LinkTree has all of my other social platforms in one place.
I'm also just going to be honest about something else: I'm not really great on camera, except for random selfies and such on Snapchat uploaded to my Snap story, and I'm even worse at sitting down and recording my own voice for things. I've never really been the kind of person who can casually turn on a camera and talk to it for ten minutes. Writing is much more my thing.
Give me a keyboard and some time to think about what I'm trying to say, and I'm perfectly happy. And honestly, I love just having an actual conversation with someone, whether that's through Snapchat, Facebook, or even the old-school method of emailing back and forth.
That's probably my strongest and favorite way of communicating with people. So while I may not be the person making a bunch of videos or recording podcasts, I'm very much the person who will happily sit there writing you a ridiculously long message because we got onto a topic neither of us expected to spend an hour talking about.
I'd really love to start including questions and suggestions from readers in future posts. It would be a lot more fun than me sitting here trying to guess what people want to read.
And honestly, that includes people who are already in Ireland, too.
If someone from Ireland reads something I've written about Irish history, culture, immigration, or my plans and thinks I've gotten something wrong, misunderstood something, or just has a completely different perspective, I'd genuinely love to hear that. I'm researching all of this from the outside, so I'm obviously not going to know everything about Ireland just because I've spent an unreasonable amount of time reading about it.
Maybe someone in Ireland has a question about what I've learned so far. Maybe they want to know why I'm approaching immigration the way I am. Maybe they know something about Irish history that I haven't come across yet. Maybe they just want to tell me, "You're going to want to look into this before you get here." That's exactly the kind of interaction I'd like this blog to have, and this doesn't even have to be about Ireland.
If you're working on your own big life change, planning some ridiculous project, trying to figure out how to organize a giant pile of information, or just have something you're trying to make sense of and think I might be able to help, you can ask me about that too.
I genuinely enjoy this kind of stuff. Give me a giant, intimidating project, and I'll probably start breaking it into smaller pieces, making lists, researching every possible option, building timelines, making spreadsheets, and somehow ending up with 47 browser tabs open.
So if you need some help figuring out your own next big thing and you think I might be useful, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to help if I can. And if I don't know the answer, I'll tell you that too. I'm not interested in pretending I know something just because it sounds better than saying, "I have no idea, but let's figure it out."
I'd also really appreciate it if you'd share the blog with someone you think might enjoy following along. Maybe that's someone planning a move abroad, another LGBTQ+ or neurodivergent person, an Ireland nerd, someone who enjoys this kind of thing, or just somebody who likes watching other people make enormous life decisions and somehow survive them.
I'm not trying to become some giant internet personality. I just want to build an actual audience of people who are interested in what I'm doing and who might want to interact with me once in a while. I'd much rather have 100 people who actually read, comment, ask questions, and talk to me than 10,000 people who clicked on something once and disappeared into the void.
If this thing eventually grows enough, I'd love to have more fun with it later. Maybe reader Q&As, polls, little games or challenges, community projects, and eventually some giveaways or other ways to give something back to the people who have been following along. Frankly, if it eventually got big enough to make some money, I'm not going to pretend I wouldn't be happy about that either, but that's not what I am here for nor what I expect. Running a blog takes time, and if it ever gets to the point where it can help pay for itself and support the work I'm putting into it, that's pretty damn cool.
But right now, what I really want is for people to talk back. Tell me what you're curious about. Tell me what you want me to research. Ask me something I haven't thought about. Give me an idea for a future post. Tell me what you're enjoying or what you'd like to see more of.
Because this isn't supposed to be just a record of me trying to get to Ireland.
I want it to be a record of the whole damn journey.
Speaking of that journey, I've got a pretty busy couple of weeks coming up.
Next week is Welcome Week at Western Oregon University, so I'll be back on campus, getting settled, checking things out, meeting people, and trying to remember how to be a college student in an actual physical classroom again. I'm honestly really excited about it.
Then the following week, the fall term officially starts.
Honestly, I couldn't be more antsy about it all. I've been beyond ready to get back to my studies, dive into more of the Information Systems and Cybersecurity courses rather than Gen. Ed., and keep working toward that career I've been trying to build for over a damn decade now. It's kind of wild looking at everything I've got going on right now and realizing that all these separate things are slowly connecting into the same bigger plan.
School. Career. Ireland. Immigration. Money. Housing. Travel. All of it.'
It's a lot, but it's also pretty damn exciting. So there's going to be plenty more for me to write about. But now I want to know what YOU want to read about.
Leave a comment here, send me an email through the Contact page, find me through my LinkTree, or share the blog with someone who might enjoy following along.
I started this little corner of the internet because I wanted somewhere to document where I'm going and how I'm getting there.
I'd really love for some of you to come along for the ride!!
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