hi!
So, here goes… my name is Denise Effing, I’m 22, it’s Saturday, August 1st 2020, and at 23:11 I’m writing this. I am French-Canadian and German, but I was born and raised in NYC. I am trilingual and about 8 years ago now, I had a bad ski accident (I fell 25 feet), and I’ve been dealing with a traumatic brain injury ever since. Before my accident I wanted to be an Olympic athlete, but after my accident doctors said that continuing to compete in Tae Kwon Do would be too dangerous for my health. They suggested I quit sports all together. At the time I was on my school’s soccer and swim team, I was on a freestyle ski team, in Upstate New York, and I was doing Tae Kwon Do 5 days a week. When I was told to quit sports I felt like someone was ripping, what I thought was, my identity out of my body. I went into, what I realize now, was a depression. Not a deep depression, but for a kid who always knew her path, now I knew nothing. So I started writing, songs, poems, but mainly open letters. So, that’s why I’m here, this thing, project, blog, column; will be a collection of travel stories, open letters I’ve written over the years, some thoughts I’ve written down (never for public consumption), and new pieces I will be writing along the way. I believe in the use of “bad words”, not having a plan, and yet still being organized. I believe that the best conversations happen in cars. I love hostels, airports, road trips, skiing the glades and the smell of NYC after it rains. Wanna know more? Keep reading… I will be posting every Monday, as well as surprise travel posts when I’m traveling!
To You
To You is a collection of open letters I’ve written over the years. For the last year or so, I’ve thought of making it into a book. However, I’ve now decided that every week I will be releasing a new chapter of my “book” here! For a more in-depth explanation on why I write, go to my first blog post on August 5th, 2020.