We resolve to be different. Fitter. Pay off debt. Volunteer. Clean out that god-forsaken garage. Stepping into a fresh calendar year seems like a chance to try on a colorful persona, yet new year’s resolutions are so often based on territory (and self-images) we already know.
Instead, surprising facets of ourselves are evoked by a novel landscape and our metamorphosis chooses us.
This year I took charge of my own web presence. A major undertaking requiring vision and planning — but it didn’t rate an end-of-’08 resolution. When I set down a tiny microblogging footprint with Twitter 18 months ago I didn’t foresee 2009′s curated-webpath to my interests and intentions.
Suddenly I was virtually attending conferences like the interactive SXSW and participating in live webchats on branding, innovation, and literature. I became a joiner and a beta-tester, signing on for a month-long experimental blogging course and volunteering for a conference-call-based life design course for expat women entrepreneurs.
I’ve become a full-feathered indie blogger, and a player in the digiventures of others: founder of the group blog to build on hybrid Expat Harem themes so many of us are living, a new media guest blogger, a location-independence blog carnival participant, administrator of a LinkedIn group for creative entrepreneurs using social media, and the curator of a year-long 2010 webcarnival to celebrate Istanbul.
Being proactive in the blogosphere is an epiphany, a 2009 reawakening of my inner student….a time to learn exactly what I need to know — as a writer and publisher, a global citizen and cultural creative in Istanbul – and contribute to the future of my communities.
What’s your surprise metamorphosis of 2009? Who did you become this year?
[Gratitude to everyone who taught me something in 2009!]
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Anastasia M. Ashman
2010 Capital of Culture monthly feature of best Istanbul links
Anastasia, nice post! It definitely resonates with how my life has changed in so many ways with this phenomena. For me, especially using twitter as a tool for gathering and circulating information has been transformative.
I like the way you have written ‘metamorphosis chooses us’ to describe the effect that makes it so attractive and useful. Especially as a woman I find it in the power of expression that has evolved from the freedom of expression through so many new venues. I have developed a vision for myself and examined my meaningful work in the blogosphere, something that did not exist for me just 9 months ago.
Does the metamorphosis have less to do with my ‘creating it’ than being pulled towards it: I almost couldn’t stop this desire to express myself through the available communities on the net (like yours for instance) and seeing that it was acceptable, I became more and more enchanted and willing to explore. And here we are!
It’s definitely going to be an interesting and exciting new year with all we have gained from the last.
Yes, Silvana! Experiencing the pull of real interests — passion tapped, as if from outside of our own understanding of it — has been a hallmark of this year. Meeting kindred spirits (like you!) has made 2009 especially sweet.
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