and so it begins

This was a lot harder to start than I thought it would be. I've written blogs and blog-like things before. I figure the essence of it is forming your thoughts in a way that they are still somewhat uniquely yours, but not so personal that you don't feel comfortable with other people reading them. Pretty straightforward.

This is different though. I'm actually writing about something. An experience which, as my mom has said, "will be unique to me." I almost feel as if I've created a right of passage for myself. I'm both excited and terrified. I hope to write more about that in the future. This entry is about the name, the place, and the purpose.

The name: it will change through time. At the moment, the name is "easy as 123," inspired by Jackson 5's "ABC." I'm thinking about changing it to Jayenjay or some variation thereof.

Jayenjay is one of my highschool nicknames along with 'johnson and johnson' and shampoo. Thank you Seth Walder. Apparently I had cool hair and my last name was Johnson, therefore I needed to be named after a hair product. Go figure.

If I change the name of the blog to a variation of my name, I'm going to hopefully come up with some sort of cleverly descriptive subtitle which will be far more informative than the name. Here's to hoping.

The place: will be Yaounde, Cameroon in West Africa. The place and the purpose are very much intertwined. I am going to this corner of the world that is so far removed in culture, climate, and location than any place I've lived before. The fact that it's so different than anything I've ever experienced is the very reason I want to go there.

The purpose: of this blog is to document my life while I am there. I want to write about what happens; what I see. Inevitably I will write about what is different, hopefully I will also write about what is the same. Yes. I am very clichéd. But I like clichés. Get over it.