When I started Jill’s Journey Du Jour, my vision was to create a site where I could share life in Arizona, my love of travel, Jeep adventures (first Sunny, and now Beep!), and all the unexpected experiences along the way. Three years later, that’s still the case.
But over the last few months, something interesting happened.
While continuing to post here, I found myself writing regularly on LinkedIn. At first, I thought of those reflections as completely separate. This blog was about travel and adventure. LinkedIn was about work.
Then I noticed a pattern.
Whether I was planning a marketing program, shopping at a store with great (or poor) customer service, or getting totally lost trying to find a doctor’s office (apparently, signs are a novel concept…), I found myself doing the same thing: paying attention to the details, digging a little deeper into the “whys” and “hows”, and noticing some of the ‘hmmm, interesting’ moments.
Eventually it hit me that the content about a trip to Sweden, rubber duck politics unfolding on my dashboard, or a major quality control fail at a corporation was all coming from the same place – I love to ask questions and learn stuff.
So it felt appropriate to give those posts a home here. You’ll find them under the Professional Lens filter (hover over “All Posts” if you’re on a desktop/laptop).
Travel will always be at the heart of this blog: new-to-me cities, unexpected discoveries, good food, hotel comparisons (that breakfast buffet isn’t going to evaluate itself!)…
But every now and then, I’ll also share things I notice in everyday life – a summer camp, a product launch that almost didn’t happen, or the aforementioned QC fail (and how the company responded).
One last thing: you might notice that these posts feature illustrations. It started simply enough: sometimes I didn’t have a photograph to use, but still wanted something visual, so I began creating simple images instead. Along the way, they developed a style all their own: stick-figure Jill, a bit of spot color and, occasionally, a surprise guest. Real photos will still make appearances from time to time.
The journey continues – be it adopting a bright yellow moose in Stockholm, getting into the mindset of a bright yellow duck named Anxious, or seeing what a (non-yellow) fork company does when its prongs get melded together – all the detours are part of the ride!
P.S. One of the books on the shelf has a bit of history behind it. If you’re curious, you can read its story here.