Goodbye post

Dear readers, it is finally time for me to move on. The seasons have been changing rapidly and winter has long departed. 

You can catch me on my new adventures (read: introverted musings) at https://orangejuicecity.wordpress.com

But before that- a trip down memory lane, plus some fun facts you probably didn't know.

1. I have been recording my thoughts for as long as I can remember.

I have had a journal since 1998. My first diary was a pink tweety bird lockable journal. There is a pile of old journals that I hope nobody ever discovers or reads because they'll judge me for how selfish and unforgiving I am. I kept a journal while blogging throughout university (one of many reasons I don't post that frequently).

2. This blog first began at the insistence of my high school friends. 

Well, the first incarnation of this blog, which was actually called A Rainbow's Dream (2004). My friends would instant message me (remember MSN??) and insist I update my blog daily. We somehow managed to keep this up for two years, even though life when I was fifteen was basically school-homework-dinner-homework-sleep-repeat.

3. Winter's star began as a decoy. And then a travel update. Then morphed into my own thought catalog.

When I started university, I wanted to continue blogging but I didn't want to be a target for gossip. You know what I mean. Word gets out about so-and-so's blog and suddenly you have friends/acquaintances visiting to stickybeak about your life and gossip about what you have written. I have seen different groups of friends do this to different people, so it can't be that uncommon. But of course this is expected- a blog is public, after all. Which is why I kept a journal. And took my original blog offline.

And then set up a decoy blog.

Yep, that's right- Winter's star began as a place for me to write pseudo-personal superficial fluff as a sort of red herring. A place to amuse myself and laugh back at the people who thought they were laughing about my intimate thoughts. Note my blogging ID- "genuinely superficial". I soon realised that was quite immature. A lot of those posts were deleted.

Winter's star returned as a sort of travel blog when I started taking overseas trips without my parents. Some people said to keep them updated with how I was going but I wasn't sure if they were just being polite. I didn't want to bombard people with emails and photos if they weren't that interested. So I started blogging here as a place for people to read updates if they were interested.

The idea for Orange Juice City was born 6 months ago. My boyfriend James wanted us to do something creative together. It was the perfect opportunity for an overdue move. There will be a different focus. Less abstract, more presence. What we did, where we went, where we are in life. It will still be a personal blog, but with more pictures. Although I don't promise I'll be able to stop myself posting long, introverted musings. 

See you there.