Introduction, or: write about what excites you.

I have a confession to make: this blog is six months late.

When I graduated with a master's degree in science communication, I wanted to write and create things that would inspire wonder in the natural world. I thought maybe I could start a blog. I came up with a name. I made a truly horrendous logo which fills me with shame as a designer, and which should never see the light of day. I looked into website hosting. But when it came time to actually write any posts - I was stuck.

Sure, I had pages of ideas, but somehow I couldn't figure out how to write about them, or how to research them. So I gave up. Months passed, and I realized my problem: I had been trying to write about things that I thought other people might be interested in. I had also tried to come up with various themes, and shoehorn topics into said themes.

I had missed the point. This was supposed to be my blog, written from my perspective. I realized that if I want to inspire wonder in people, the easiest, most natural way to do that is to write about things I already know about, or things that I am already excited about. What courses have I taken because I just wanted to know about the subject matter? What museums have I gone to every time I’m in the area? What natural phenomena have I given a 45-minute lecture to my partner about while driving past them?

An igneous intrusion by the side of the road in Sudbury, Ontario, that I was very excited about. The dark rock in the center was once lava that pushed up through the rock that was already there. (Bailey Cohen-Krichevsky)

So that’s where we’re at: I’m starting with writing about natural phenomena that you might go see when you’re traveling, and I’ll talk about some of the science behind what makes them so cool. Some of them I’ve seen in person. After that? We'll see how it goes.

Sometimes the best plan is not to have a full plan: you just need to get started.