I Am Changing – And So Is 100 Miles Highway

A while back I proclaimed 2012 the year of first times, but it’s much more than that – it’s the year to stop listening to the chatter in my head and start following my heart.

A new Me

It all started with a conversation I had with a close friend – A chat that went from boys, to work and was finally led to what really makes us happy. That was the moment at which I realized that, not only was I far from where I wanted to be, but I was even on the wrong track. I was basically heading towards a life I didn’t want to have.

“We are masters of our own destiny“, I was reminded, “whatever you don’t like, change it“. Somehow, I had let my life slip through my fingers and allowed my own thoughts to stop me from pursuing my dreams.

You’ve worked so hard for this – don’t give up on it.
You’re so lucky to be here.
You’re not a quitter.

All this might be true – I did work hard to get where I am, I do consider myself quite lucky and I am definitely not a quitter. But as I started to realize that I was unhappy with some aspects of my life, I knew it was time for a change.

So this is me now – A career changer*. A risky decision I’ve taken to find what I really feel passionate about.

A new 100 Miles highway

A life changing decision reflects in other parts of my life, too – my mood, my style, my thoughts and even my interests. Travel, food and photography will always have a big place in my heart (and my blog), however, there has been growing space for more. If you’ve been reading 100 Miles Highway for the past 4 months, you might have come across a new series called Monthly dare, in which I propose something to become a better self (in any aspect possible). This is a project resulting from my increasing interest on finding inspiration, following ones passions, and overall becoming a happier person.

The addition of monthly dares is only one of many changes that have been going on lately:

• New header and color scheme. I chose to go for more earthy colors this time – in line with becoming much more outdoorsy and earthy myself! Do you like it?
• Categories. Check out the sidebar – I’ve revamped my categories! Besides for fighting with the CSS sheet for a couple of hours to manage to do the hovering images, I’ve renamed and am in the process of reordering the posts into: Discover, Experience and Life.
  Discover is going to cover anything travel related.
  The idea of Experience is to gather those posts that stimulate our senses. This will not be limited to gastronomy (taste) anymore, but extend to smell, touch, sight and hearing.
  Life is going to include anything from living and working abroad to following your instincts and becoming a better person.
• Places. If you look at the top part of the blog, you’ll find a new tab called Places, which includes 4 sub-tabs: World Map, Europe, America, Oceania. This substitutes the before over-crowded and messy tab cloud – destination specific posts should now be much easier to find!

Other changes that I’m considering in the near future are:

• Blog Monetization. For the past two years, I’ve never made a cent out of this blog, and I frankly never thought I would. I’m a bit concerned that some of you might feel that I have sold out but I do hope this blog can pay off some bills. Following my passion comes at a quite high cost and any little income will be very much appreciated. For the time being, I’m still shopping around and comparing hundreds of alternatives, trying to find those that will be less intrusive and more relevant. I’d love to hear your tips and recommendations!

• Photo Gallery. So far, my photo gallery is made of pages of the blog, filled with some of my favorite pictures. But lately (as a consequence of thoughts on monetizing the blog), I’ve considered using an external service for this or maybe simplifying it by only choosing the top pictures, not separating them in albums. Any thoughts?

I’d love to read your feedback!

*I’ll post some more on my new career path in future posts, however, it will be more about how I took the decision to change and how I chose a new sector, than posts about the sector itself.