Revival of Two Second Street

When I first started this blog, I used it as a way to explore and make sense of my time in Peace Corps Mongolia. I wanted to let people look into bits and pieces of what I was experiencing to demystify the Peace Corps experience: Easy to read, bite-sized articles that let people learn a little piece of Mongolian culture. I wanted to remove that element of exoticism present when we think about and relate to nations or people we don’t have a strong connection with or knowledge of. I also wanted to motivate myself to write more poetry, and I came out of it with quite a few new poems.

I stopped when my Peace Corps time ended: It was time to move on.

I had thought about keeping up with my writing, but the demands of readjustment were high: finishing school, visiting as many people as I could upon my return, finding a job and a new place to live, etc.

Now that I’ve landed, I couldn’t help but think about writing again, inspired mostly by the continued writings of my fiance. My work is getting easier to predict and adjust to, and my days more predictable. I find myself in a place I could not have predicted: Phoenix, Arizona. Right on the northern tip of the Sonoran Desert. I never imagined I would live in Arizona, or any desert, for that matter. Throughout my time here, I’ve seen many interesting, troubling, uplifting, confounding, and fascinating things. With states we don’t live in, we just kind of shrug and pay them no heed. I know I’ve done this many times.

I’ve seen and experienced many wonderful things here, and I want to share what’s going on in Arizona with others. I want to become engaged in non-academic, non-technical writing again. I want to demystify my Arizona experience: Easy to read, bite-sized articles that let people learn a little piece of Arizona, Mexican, and Native American culture (or whichever culture happens to pass through these parts on any given day). I want to remove that element of indifference present when we think about and relate to states (in the USA) or people in states (in the USA) we don’t have a strong connection with or knowledge of.

I hope that this revival continues to bear the fruits of understanding and empathy. I hope you all can learn with me in my experience.