Life. Travel. Me.
About Me — Will Hull
Travel your own life
Join me and a few friends at our publications
Counter Arts for whacky counter culture on everything, Rainbow Salad for all things fiction and poetry, and Songstories for music fans, musicians and anyone suffering an earworm.
Other subtitles I nearly went with: ‘An Aussie Yank,’ or ‘Witted — quick and slow,’ or this one, ‘From well-paid, no-readers technical writer to got-readers, but no-pay blog writer.’ But in all of that is the joy of writing.
I will say upfront, I prefer the modern English of my youth but occasionally the Queen’s English slips through to the wicketkeeper, so pardon my jargon. I may write “colour” but I’ll never say “Al-loo-MIN-ee-um”. Promise.
Okay, on with the me stuff…
Back In the Then and Past
Guess this is the spot for background, for history, my “CV”; but all three terms sound dull as dishwater. I’ll also leave out any Myers-Briggs pigeonholing.
Hometown? Fullerton, California — Go Orcas, Knights, Lancers and Titans!
Those days are a blur of baseball, school, church and an ageing Dodge Colt hatchback, complete with racing stripes and luggage rack. Number of books read? Five, maybe. Travel dreams? Only to visit Cooperstown. Writing accomplishments? ‘Dear Santa’ letters and homework essays.
After leaving most things baseball and church behind, I moved on to things more nerdy and technical and studied engineering, which led me into technical writing (the writing was on the wall). The Dodge Colt didn’t make it beyond this point either. I then moved on further — some 12,781 kms further (7,942 miles).
Would I ever move back to the United States? Highly unlikely (the reasons are many and I’ll save you my rants), but I never say “never”. Would be fun to live in New Hampshire, simply because of their motto “Live Free or Die”… and Bernie Sanders is nearby.
Other Fine Moments
- Once cussed out by a HOF baseball player, I won’t name names (nor did I spit on Reggie’s plaque when I visited Cooperstown).
- I’ve ruptured my eardrum twice, including once when scuba diving — at a depth of 4 m (13 1/2 ft).
- In one day I got three speeding tickets, one in each of three states (MO, OK, TX).
- And for some whack-a-doodle reason, I’ve developed an eyebrow-rub tick in recent years.
A Few Life Philosophies
Laughter absolutely is the best medicine.
Be decent, be humane and believe there is Karma.
“Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage.” — Paulo Coelho
The older you get, the more you realise it is okay to live a life others don’t understand.
And while I enjoy tracing my family history, I’m not one to retrace my own steps. The world’s a big place and so much life to experience. I don’t want to lie on the beach at the same holiday spot every summer of every year. Living in the same place I grew up? That’s my definition of hell — that’s not a slight on Fullerton or anyone who finds contentment in doing that, it’s just not my mindset.
Now Me
The 12,000 kms landed me in Melbourne, Australia. After 20+ years, minimalism, travel, reading, and writing have become the cornerstones of my life — and my happiness. (Ahem, for any of my loved ones reading this, you are my keystone.)
Change of life (aka mid-life crisis, but I reject that label) brought on my embrace of minimalism and it has purified my life by simplifying it.
One thing that has affected the older me and tweaked how I write was the flip of a genetic switch in my brain which I wrote about in an earlier post, ‘Write Like a 5-Year-Old’, about Essential Tremor.
Sport, including all the American classics, is still a love. Add to that, footy (Australian Rules Football). Cricket? Nope, no can do. Turns out, you can be an Aussie and hate cricket and Vegemite.
Books read? I’ve lost count. Travel? Yes, please, anytime and anywhere. And the writing accomplishments are growing and, hopefully, improving. Which moves me on to the next section…
Life on Medium
Long time reader, short time (non-technical) writer, the passion re-kindled and I’m looking forward to improving and growing as a writer and a person.
From browsing on this platform, there are those driven by coin and those by the starving artist’s creed. But I’d bet most writers fall somewhere in the honest middle, like myself, like Jessica Lynn and many others I’m following. I enjoy the writing and the challenge first and most, but one goal is to top up the travel coffers too (I’m betting international travel will come back one year).
I’ve written a few posts which I’ve published directly under my profile and have work published in world-travelers-blog with articles like this one about a road trip in Virginia, called, surprise ‘Road Trip: Virginia’. Still finding my feet here but enjoying every moment and keen to learn.
Travel writing is one love, but there are other sandboxes I want to play in — fiction, writing, life experience and growth and ideas I haven’t even thought of yet.
Part of finding my feet and deciding where to take my writing includes social media. It’s not that I’m old (the number just keeps going up) or lazy (I’m just resting my eyes), but I am a KISS fan. No, not the gimmicky band; the acronym Keep It Simple Stupid. Advice welcome.
I’ve learned a lot from and about Medium in just a couple of months and eager to jump in and take the next step (s). I don’t want to be the trick-or-treater knocking on a stranger’s door on Halloween, 365, begging for candy but I hope to connect with other writers and learning, writing, sharing and earning, together, so please feel free to connect.
Love the “one post, edit whenever” idea for this publication, About Me Stories. I’ll be editing whenever, so I hope you’ll check in now and then.
Thanks for reading.
I’m going to break now for two other passions — Melbourne coffee and Cadbury milk chocolate…
Download my new *Free* book, ‘Limericky Pulp and Other Poems’, at Ko-fi. All my limericks and poems in one easy read!