Zuiker Chronicles redux

Nov 26, 2015

I was a longtime blogger and an online pro, but on January 1, 2014, I surfed smack into a social media wipe-out. Bruised and burned out, I took a break from the Web, mothballing my blog and shuttering my social media accounts. I vowed to spend a year focused only on my health, my family and my job.

Away from the Web, I took advantage of the newly available hours in each day. I used them to sit still, run fast, read for pleasure and write for myself, talk with my wife and laugh with my children, and to engage in other pursuits. By December, I was in shape, physically and mentally, to run the Honolulu Marathon, finishing in 4:26:40, nearly an hour faster than my 1993 time.

Standing at the Waikiki finish line, I was thankful for how my blogging and social media sabbatical had bettered my life, how it realigned me with the lessons of my youth: to get out, walk far, read and reflect and write, gather with family and friends. To be kind to others. To stand up, stand tall, and stand for something good.

Back home, in North Carolina, a new year started. I let my sabbatical stretch on, through 2015, with more of the same: walking and running and swimming. Family meals, movie nights, and homework help. Work projects, campus explorations, and library browsing. More looking back, and more looking ahead.

Now another January is in sight. So is another marathon, this time in February, in Texas. And I’m ready to reclaim my online voice after so many months of silence. But not as mistersugar. I’m returning to where I started, zuiker.com, to chronicle again how those childhood lessons make life interesting and rewarding.

Anton Zuiker ☄