30 Days of Truth: Day 11

People seem to compliment me on this blog.  Some of the compliments I have are about the theme and layout, because they think it’s quite complicated and I must be a creative genius… when really it’s a theme that came ready-made and all I did was tweak it!

Wait, it probably would have been best to let people believe I really know my shit and conjured this up from scratch, huh?

The majority of the compliments I get are from other expats who are living here who are happy to find out that they aren’t alone in their struggles with life here.  In the early years I wrote a lot of rants about how hard it is here and about my experiences trying to get used to my new life.  I tried to be as open about it as possible, not because I was really in it to help people at the time, I just needed a place to rant.  It was just a bonus that some of my posts actually did help people in the end.

I’ll never be an expat blogger who is striving to be the biggest and best authority on all things Netherlands, lord knows there are enough of those.  I guess I’ve just been the other voice of expats, the one who says “Hey, ya know? It’s not all about how to deal with the IND or how many different kinds of cheese there are!  Life can be hard here and you might struggle and that’s OK!”  Not everyone comes here and takes the Netherlands by storm, in fact, I’m willing to bet that even some of those who appear to be on their blogs are not behind the scenes.  I’d put money on it.

Some people have messaged me saying I should go into writing somehow, but that’s not really my bag. I write as things come into my head and that’s about it.  If someone told me to write 1000 words on a specific topic I’d probably come up blank, unless it was open ended and they were willing to wait until the mood strikes.

In any case, I’m really happy that there are people out there who enjoy reading my blog, even though it’s a little less about struggling here (thank god, that has improved for me… as it will for everyone eventually), but hopefully they’ll still find something here to enjoy!