Greetings Displaced Nationers, old and new.
How many of you have been with us from the beginning, could I see a show of hands?
Hmmm… Are there one or two hands out there? Thanks for sticking around! We’ve come a long way together since the Displaced Nation’s humble beginnings on April Fool’s Day 2011.
Actually, can you believe it’s been four years and we still haven’t run out of things to say about the displaced life?
We can’t!
Still, today is not for introspection. It’s a special occasion, a day to celebrate with cake!
And, although it’s not customary to do so, I’d like to reveal my four wishes for the coming year:
1) Reach a new milestone of 500 followers on Facebook.
For some reason we never tried very hard during these four years to get FB followers, and our numbers reflect this insouciance: we are now at 467. If any of you can help us find 33 more “likes”, we’d deeply appreciate. Of course we’d like to have even more than 500, but we’d be happy with that milestone for now. (We post on FB twice a day, and always strive to be amusing and/or thought-provoking…)
2) Have more people discover the new and much improved (if we say so ourselves!) Displaced Dispatch.
If you’re a subscriber, you’ll know that we’ve already celebrated our birthday in last Sunday’s issue by sharing the Danish idea of April Fool’s (no fooling’). Seriously (actually, I am serious), the Dispatch is now like chunky ice cream. It goes down smoothly but also contains six tasty morsels:
- What to celebrate this week: Holidays and other commemorative occasions around the world.
- While we were all on social media: New book releases and other milestones in the lives of international creatives.
- TDN updates: Our past week’s posts.
- Alice Obsession: Our latest discovery about Alice in Wonderland, whom we see as our muse.
- Matters of debate: Contentious issues raised by various expat and travel bloggers over the past few weeks.
- Surprising discoveries: Stuff we didn’t know before sifting through said sources. (Turns out: there’s a lot we don’t know!)
3) Deliver a fitting commemoration to Alice in Wonderland on behalf of the 150th birthday of Lewis Carroll’s celebrated book.
One hundred and fifty years, really? That puts our four years in perspective! As long-time readers will know, the Displaced Nation has treated Alice in Wonderland as our special muse from the very start, beginning with Kate Allison’s brilliant “5 lessons Wonderland taught me about the expat life, by Lewis Carroll’s Alice.” For the past three years, we gave out monthly Alice Awards to a number of international creatives. For that matter, we also have a thriving Alice in Wonderland Pinterest board. But for this special year in Alice’s life, we are planning a special “wonderlanded” series, to be rolled out starting this month. (Know anyone who would be game to channel Alice from the perspective of someone leading a life of global residency and travel? We are open to suggestions. Send to ml@thedisplacednation.com.)
4) Introduce a new look to the site.
Good news: I already have a theme picked out! Not-so-good news: I can’t seem to find the time to transfer the contents, resize the photos, and so on. (Blame the day job!)
* * *
And assuming I get another wish, to grow on, that one will be that we can always have a rich crop of international creatives as columnists.
Speaking of which, I’d like to give the first pieces of our birthday cake to Beth Green, Lisa Liang, JJ Marsh, Joanna Masters-Maggs, HE Rybol, and Shannon Young: The Displaced Nation would have little to celebrate were it not for the seven of you!!!
And if anyone out there is still with me, you deserve some cake as well. Thanks so much for your support.
Bottoms up, cheers, kampai—oh and thanks for all the prezzies! What prezzies, you may ask? Well, I assume that from now you’re going to:
And with that final pitch, I’m off to fetch another glass of champagne. Huzzah!!
STAY TUNED for more fab posts.
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Happy birthday !! I will follow you on FB – actually I didn’t know you were on FB. I thought you wer only on Twitter. Sorry. I’ll do it right now.
Thank you so much, Véronique. Somehow we’ve never mastered the art of attracting a FB following, which is why I’ve set such a modest goal for the year. Anyway, thanks to you, we’re now looking for 32 more “likes.” Every vote counts! 🙂
Congratulations!
Thanks, Jack–also for the big part you played in making the Displaced Nation a success! xo
Happy Birthday, ML – (well you are the face of TDN!)
Thanks, Cinda. In fact, my two partners are now inactive, so I’m fronting the nation on my own–just hope it doesn’t come across as a dictatorship! (Given your Latin American background, perhaps that’s not funny…?)