For Heather Mason, an American living in Johannesburg, home is a foreign concept.
Heather shares her story the TUSA team
Like a true world traveler, for home is an abstract concept for Mason. When she is in the United States she refers to South Africa as home and when in South Africa she refers to the US as home.
That being said, Mason has been living in South Africa now for seven years and has no plans of returning to the US, at least not permanently.
Her life and success have become somewhat dependent on her unique outsider’s perspective of South Africa. She is a prominent blogger in Johannesburg. As a writer about things South African and photographer, her blog in South Africa has become “part of her identity” Mason said.
That is not to say she could not bring that unique perspective, photography, and writing style elsewhere and she has. But for the past seven years her online fans and following have come to value the South African thread she spins and the style with which she spins it.
Mason did not aspire to become a blogger. She did not go to college for blogging or take an online seminar. But she did have a background in writing, a knack for photography, and a desire to travel.
Mason began her blog “2Summers” after she experienced what she characterizes as her own “dramatic Eat, Pray, Love moment.” She decided to fly away to South Africa with a then boyfriend, providing her the opportunity to experience two summers in one year. (Summer in South Africa occurs during winter months in America due to its location below the equator. Her leaving the U.S. during the summer landed her in South Africa around the onset of summer there.)
She never expected blogging to become a career or even to gain a significant following. “I actually didn’t know people blogged for living,” Mason said. But, she enjoyed writing and found the process cathartic and self-fulfilling.
“I just sort of went out and did things and wrote about whatever was happening, and people were interested. I liked going to unfrequented places and writing about it.”
Initially prone to self-doubt, Mason was unsure of her own abilities and hypercritical of her work. It was when she discovered that people were interested in her blog that she began gaining confidence in her writing, and became more assured of her flair for photography.
“I always wanted to write but I didn’t really believe in myself as a creative writer until I came here and started the blog. I realized that maybe I had a special voice that people could relate to. Eventually, I started getting freelance work from the popularity and reputation of my blog, so I started taking it more seriously, thinking about it from a business perspective. But, I still very much wanted to keep it personal and honest while trying to please my audience. It’s a balance.”
Part of what keeps Mason from going back to the US is of course her blogging work, because she does have a large, growing audience that rely on her insight and art in and about Johannesburg.
She is now capable of fully living off of her work as a travel blogger and online personality. But, there are also personal reasons for staying. She loves South Africa, especially Johannesburg, and has formed many new friendships and relationships in the past seven years. She has a reluctance to predict her own future, and still doesn’t know whether or not she will be living somewhere totally different two years from now. But, it seems that for the time being “2Summers” is staying in South Africa, so her following can breathe a brief sigh of relief.
Her passion for travel, her personal and permanent ties to South Africa and her origins in the US all work together to give her a broader perspective, a more open mind, and a more observant outlook. This all comes through in Heather Mason’s writing and photography. She has a keen eye, a silver tongue, and a ready pen.
Two weeks ago I was privileged to be invited along for an instawalk with Cerebra and Vodacom.
We took to the skies. We had sunset burgers and G&T’s on a downtown rooftop.
If you’ve ever doubted the power of social media, consider that this one afternoon yielded a pool of 194 photos, 183 @mentions from 35 unique Instagram sources, with a total combined online reach of 4 million people – 2.8…
