The Journey Begins

    I imagined setting up a blog would be a big deal, but that's just my general neurosis. I'd be more than glad to spend about a year or so planning out constructive themes and topics to develop in a blog, write out all the entries in advance and only start posting anything at all after that. I could write a blog like I would write a book. But actually that is not what I'm looking for here. A blog should be about spontaneity, I suppose, entries acting as reflections of the time they were written at, rather than being in a chain of coherent well constructed ponderings, which form a set-in-stone ensemble when put together. I've wanted to start blogging for some time now, and have actually been seriously considering it for the past two weeks. It seems like a good idea right now, but of course, I've been going back and forth doubting it. After all, reasonable questions come up when contemplating to join the blogosphere. What's the use? Who will read me? Who will care?

    Well, I may not know why or how you ended up here, but I've figured out why I've come. The point for me is (quite obviously) to get some writing out there to a reading public. I am a self-proclaimed writer. I actually started posting fiction in an online community about five years ago. It was mostly for fun, to occupy myself with something I actually enjoy doing for a change, as I went through high-school. However, over time, it progressively grew on me, and I discovered a true passion for writing. In the process of doing so, I created a story, which I've been working on ever since. I posted a couple of incomplete drafts of this story online, without having any bigger intention for it, but eventually it grew bigger, and I decided to rework it on my own for a while, to make it better and stronger. I've been doing that for the past year. Meanwhile, I outgrew my fanfic community. So, I've been writing just for myself lately. It's been a good experience, I certainly don't regret what I've done, but that does not mean I don't miss being part of a community. I used to have feedback on my writing, and interact with people, which even made me a couple good friends over time. Writing alone has its advantages, but it does get a bit lonely. I'm not ready to post any fiction so far; my story still needs work, but I would certainly like to put something out there. Hence this blog, through which I hope to post some lighter writing, than that I've uploaded in the past and become part of an online community again, which was a great experience for me before. So, this is why I'm here.

    Concerning the content of this blog, what can you expect? I've already established I'm a writer, but that is about as precise as trying to point out a single strand of grass in a field. Everyone is a writer, at least to some extent. Even among those who self identify as writers, you get a vast range, from the best and most successful publishing authors, to the darkest and lowest corners of Yaoi fanfic (no offense intended). While I'll leave it to you to place me wherever you please on the latter scale, I will give you more detail as to what my intention here is.
    Like I said, the time is right for me to start a blog. I currently live in France, but this is not going to last. I've been living in France for the past eleven years, and am French by birth. I completed my whole secondary education here, and graduated from high-school two years ago. Ever since, I've been struggling to find what I want to study. After studying art for one year, and picking up on Chinese for another, I eventually decided that my place was not in France. I've well established that I love writing by now. In fact, on a broader scaler I consider myself to be a storyteller. Writing is my media of comfort for now, though I'd also be interested in studying and using new ones. The problem is, as a whole, storytelling is not something you can study in France. You can study literature, but not creative writing; you can study the technique of film, but not so much script; you can study computer programing or art, but not the actual conception of a video game. Basically, as far as the French are concerned, you can study what others have done, but no one is going to teach you how to make your own stories. That talent, you'll have to develop on your own. That's just as well – I wouldn't want to study writing in French. So, I realized I had to look for opportunities beyond my country's borders. That's when I came across the idea of studying in Canada, notably Quebec. Indeed, while it would generally be very expensive for me to go study anywhere else in North America as an international student, French students actually get preferential tuition fees in Quebec, and so it turned out to be a great option for me: my open door onto English-speaking education, which offers the possibility to study my areas of interest. There are three English-speaking colleges in Quebec: Concordia, McGill and Bishop's University.

 Bishop's University Campus, in Sherbrooke, QC

 
    Among the three, I narrowed down my choice to Bishop's (BU for short), a small liberal arts college, an hour and a half away from Montreal, and just 50 km north of Vermont. From what I gather, it is a very close-knit place with an amazing school spirit, and a very positive learning environment. Best of all, they have a program which encompasses the study of various forms of storytelling: the Popular Narrative program. So, it's basically my dream study path, in an ideal University, in English. What more could I ask for?   Going to study in Canada, and notably at BU has been my ambition for the past year or so. There wasn't much to "do", technically, for my admission, so the process has mostly been a lot of waiting, projecting myself, imagining, doubting, changing my mind back and forth and wondering. Eventually, last December, I headed out to Canada and visited the BU campus. Unfortunately it was on the eve of the campus' closing time for the holidays, so I toured with my student ambassador in an empty campus, with a lot of closed doors. I was disappointed not to actually see much, but the information my guide gave me about the school was great, and really made me sure this was the place I had to be. So I went back to France, passed the TOEFL test to prove I know how to speak English, filled out an admission file, sent all the documents and waited... And finally, a little over a week ago, I finally found out I had been accepted. So, I'm moving to Canada next year to study storytelling in English, just like I wanted.

    I'm at an exciting crossroad in my life. I have some four months left to live in Paris, my hometown, before things start changing. I want to take advantage of the fact that I still live here, and reflect on this past decade of living in the capital of France and prepare for the transition. This summer, I plan on traveling to various places of Europe and hopefully North America as well if I can manage it. After that, I'll be moving to Sherbrooke, QC, the town in which Bishop's University is located. I not only want to have a log to track this experience in, I also want to share it with other people – my friends, people who have read my stories in the past, and my future fellow students at BU. So, what is the Wandering Narramist? In one sentence, I guess I would sum it up as being the journey of an aspiring writer, as much through the world, as his life. And it is just starting up...