So I’ve decided my birthday is a great time to finally start my blog. 33 years old…wow, that’s a sobering thought.
I’m not quite sure how I’d like to go about this. Do I want this to be an online journal? Just a photo gallery? A studied commentary on the people, places and events I experience? Is this for business or for personal reasons? (welcome to the sort of OCD anxieties that keep me from doing many meaningful projects in my life!) In the end, I’ve decided I don’t know… we’ll see what this evolves into, and I’m going to reserve the right to change my mind whenever I want!
I’ll confess that the biggest hinderance to me beginning a blog has been that I didn’t want to assume that anybody beyond my family and friends cared about my life, experiences, or ideas. The idea struck me as too presumptuous and vain. So I’ll apologize ahead of time to anybody reading this outside my inner circle if my tone is too informal, but this blog is first and foremost for those I love. I’m not sure I could get this thing started any other way. I’ve decided that more than anything else, the biggest motivation for starting this is that I NEED to share. If I’ve been affirmed of any one thing living here in Africa, it’s that life is most meaningful when it’s shared.
It’s an interesting point, I was recently informed, that there is no word for “sad” in the Wolof language. It would be absurd of course to idealize the lifestyle here as one devoid of this emotion (on the contrary, I’ve seen more than a few sudden public outbursts of rage here on the “smiling coast”, which one could argue might have been diffused earlier if they’d been able to use the phrase “I’m sad”, haha) but it’s noteworthy that they refuse to name this emotion. In a culture where you are nearly never alone, you are supported, bolstered, corrected, and affirmed at all times by those who love you in a communal resistance to the downward spiral of self-absorption called depression. Contrasted with my own individualistic culture (with a conspicuously profitable anti-depressant market I might add) and my own independent tendencies, and with all the many miles that separate us, this blog is my attempt to share my life with those I love.
Please feel free to comment, question or critique anything I post here. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Love,
Nate
p.s. It’s only pure stubbornness on my part that I’m posting this because I’m not at all pleased with how the photos are displayed in this wordpress format, but I’m determined to have something up on my birthday. This will have to do for now!
You can click on each image to make them larger, but eventually I’ll have them posted to my other websites as well:
www.n8smith.com
www.natesmithstudios.zenfolio.com
Senegal: from Dakar to St. Louis and Back
I’ll start with a small collection of photos for now and try to follow up with some commentary later…
