Collecting Postcards Turns Five

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that five years have passed since I first launched the Collecting Postcards blog on April 13, 2014. Some parts of the last five years are easy to quantify. Two agencies, five job assignments. Three cars. Homes on three continents. Travel in 14 countries. Five hospitalizations. Two pets. I’ve written 180 blog posts which 33,000 visitors from over 165 countries have viewed nearly 105,000 times. Everything else that’s harder to quantify? Well, that’s where you’ll have to read more deeply.

Five years of some tears and much laughter. The cycles of closeness and distance with family and friends. Countless road trips and adventures in new places, and many weekends in PJs watching movies. Making friends, working my butt off, sometimes agreeing to disagree after thoughtfully considering the criticism of others, and standing in my truth. Adapting more or less to the endless and steep learning curve of this lifestyle. Becoming a (hopefully) better writer, analytical thinker, officer. And most of all, serving my country and trying to be a good wife, daughter, sister, friend, and colleague.

For the blog’s fourth anniversary, I wrote a roundup of some of my most popular posts, which you can find here.

Thanks for supporting the Collecting Postcards blog. Every year the blog increases readership and page views, so I feel like the best is yet to come. The next five years will bring our assignment in Mexico, and we cannot even imagine what else! But whatever they bring, you will find it here. I hope I will be able to continue to entertain you, and share information on travel and public service.

Please send me an email and let me know if you want me to write about something in particular. (And if I owe you a response, I promise it’s coming!)

Email: askcollectingpostcards@gmail.com

Twitter: @pennypostcard

Facebook: @collectingpostcardsblog