By the time I publish this post to my blog, I will have already taken off from Pearson International Airport and landed in San Francisco. The bulk of this post was written before that time, in the days leading up to my departure.

January 2023 marks the first time that I have been to the west cost of the United States of America. While I am of course excited about this new adventure, it is not without its fair share of trepidation. For one… I am afraid of flying. It’s a strange thing to be afraid of, considering the fact that I am a licensed glider pilot. Local flying was a huge part of my late teens and early twenties. (Not to mention that in order to obtain said licence, I had to perform some honest-to-goodness death-defying feats. Seriously, Google “graveyard spiral”… I’ve done it many times.) Yet for some reason, put me on a commercial aircraft and I’m white-knuckling it for most of the journey. Shrug.

But apart from this inexplicable fear, there is another reason why I have a degree of trepidation about travelling to California, and it is that I’ve committed to writing about it.

Here’s the deal. I’m a local traveller. I pride myself on finding joy in the experiences that are available in my own backyard. Mine is not a true travel blog, nor is the content I write for clients travel-related. You will never find listicles about the “top ten” anything to do internationally on my site, or why this European city or that Asian culinary market is The Best. That’s not my style. I’m not a nomad; I’m not restless. I have deep roots. I stay put.

But I am going to write about San Francisco while I am there. Just a few pieces, some key experiences. I’ve committed to doing this as a challenge to myself—and herein lies the trepidation. In my writing style, I am a storyteller. Maybe it’s a little cocky of me to admit, but there is one thing I know I’m good at, and that is finding the story in anything I’m writing about. My brain is hard-wired to find the angle, the “Why Should I Care?” that will keep readers reading my words. I’m kind of proud of that.

But I can very easily see writing about my travels in San Francisco being a rude awakening to that self-confidence. After all, how does one write a travel-related piece that doesn’t end up as a “Why You Should” or a “We Went Here Here Here Here and Here” article? What personal story, what reason for caring, can I find in the things I do and experience while on the coast of California?

So yes, I have trepidation about writing my San Fran experiences. But I am not afraid to challenge myself, to test my limits. Therefore, I am determined to find something unique to say about the experiences which, in other travel blogs and magazines, have been written about over and over again. Mine will not be about the experience itself, but about my experience of it. There is a story in what waits for me on the coast that hasn’t been told before, and I commit to myself that I will find it.

If this post makes it live, then that means my plane landed safely. And my first step onto U.S. soil will be the first step of my personal challenge. Wish me luck.