Toward Vandalia - The Collected Writing of Greg Joachim
  • Essays
  • Short Stories
  • Microfiction
  • Notes
  • Photographs

  • Welcome To The Party, Pal

    Boats anchored at Peppermint Grove, Western Australia.

    Hello.

     

    It’s been a while, hey?

     

    The holiday season afforded me time and headspace for some long-overdue personal reflection, and this post is one result of that reflection.

     

    This site – Toward Vandalia – has been around for nearly nine years. In that same time, my life has seen some major transitions and changes: I completed my MBA, got married, began and completed my PhD, and had a son. Through all of this, ToVa has been lurking in the background – sometimes changing with me, sometimes sitting still, but never forgotten about entirely.

     

    I began the site during my MBA studies in 2014. The initial focus of posts was personal development, which was also my personal focus at the time. However, one tends to hit a point of diminishing returns with the personal development discourse. The revelations come fewer and farther between. Eventually, you realize you’re reading more or less the same ideas over and over again. I didn’t want to contribute to that cycle, and so the site went quiet for a while.

     

    Between the end of my MBA studies and the start of my PhD candidature, I eased my mind by writing “microfiction”: very, very short stories (that I was tying to photos on my Instagram feed). However, Instagram became less fun as they constantly altered their algorithm. I lost my [small, but fun] community there, and so I stopped sharing photos and stories at the same pace. Starting my PhD candidature in 2016 put the final nail in the lid of that particular coffin: my life became consumed with non-fiction.

     

    Though I managed a few short essays and notes on the site during this time, the PhD only took more and more of my time and energy, up until I submitted my thesis in June 2020 – yes, three months after the COVID-19 pandemic started. At the same time, I was teaching the maximum allowable courseload to get the experience that would hopefully lead to a faculty role. So: still no time for “fun” writing.

     

    My son was born in June 2021, introducing me to a whole new world of all-consuming thought patterns. While I was [am] often too tired to think, let alone write, I began to feel the “itch” again: the need to write.

     

    February 2022 brought the faculty role that I had been working so hard to achieve, but I was right into the “fire”: the semester began only eleven days after I started in the role. And so 2022 was consumed with keeping my head above water with the job, and trying to be the best husband and father I could be.

     

    Which brings us to 2023. My third year as a father, my eighth as a husband, my fourteenth in Australia, and my thirty-ninth on Earth.

     

    And, as noted, nearly the tenth year of this site.

     

    As The Girl and I settle into our new “normal”, I finally see not only a place for creative writing in my life, but also the need to do that writing. So, I have resolved to return to ToVa. There will be no broad theme to my posts. Mostly, I’ll write about whatever is on my mind at any given time. Sometimes this will be a movie I’ve just seen, sometimes it will be some photos I want to share. It will be consistently a record of my experience, and I hope that reading the posts will bring you some of the same joy that writing them will bring to me.

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    January 13, 2023
  • Cliffs of the Pacific Coast Highway


    Pacific Coast Highway by Theo West on 500px.com

    November 2016 //
    One of many beautiful sunsets The Girl and I caught along the Pacific Coast Highway in 2016.

    Follow me on: 500px // Instagram

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    December 20, 2020
  • Moody View


    Half Dome by Theo West on 500px.com

    November 2016 //
    The Girl and I climbed to the top of Sentinel Dome, which gave us this moody view of Half Dome.

    Follow me on: 500px // Instagram

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    August 7, 2020
  • Around And Around


    The Guggenheim by Theo West on 500px.com

    July 2019 //
    Another semester begins in earnest today. Around and around we go.

    Follow me on: 500px // Instagram

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    August 3, 2020
  • Spot The Photographer

    Reflection of Theo at The Broad in Los Angeles California

    Close reflection of Theo at The Broad in Los Angeles California

    July 2019 //
    Spot the photographer…

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    June 24, 2020

Archive

  • January 2023
  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • May 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014

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