Start A Blog

As a writing major, my professors constantly hound me to get my work out there. “It doesn't matter how--just make a name for yourself.” As many can attest, this is a scary thing! Putting your deepest thoughts, ideas, and muses for others to read and judge at their own expense is intimidating. Tired of their good mannered nagging, this term I decided to follow my professors’ advice. This is when I decided to start a blog. With Facebook, Twitter, and every other social media sites running half the world, I thought what better way to share my writing then to start a blog. “But wait,” I thought, “blogs are only for nerdy people or high school girls to lament about their latest boy obsession. I can’t possibly start a blog. Nope. Not happening.” So I pushed the idea out of my head, but like most good ideas--we push them away only for them to deviously resurface.

I thought about a stupid blog every day. I was tormented by the idea, so I did the only sensible thing--I asked two of my best friends what they thought of the idea. To my utter surprise they loved it. Their encouraging words gave me just the extra push I needed. “Ok, now what?” I asked myself, thus began a two week process of researching how to even enter into the blogging world. One thing I knew I wanted my blog to have was a purpose. Writing about my self-obsessive thoughts is something my journal looks forward to, not the online world. After several sleepless nights, numerous coffees (probably what attributed to the sleepless nights), and squeezing my creative juices raw, I came up with this idea: I am going to start a blog about “Finding the Joy in Life” (yes, pun intended). Too often we get stuck in our mundane lives, myself included, so why not start by experiencing the little things; complimenting a stranger, turning off your phone for a day, taking a cooking class....you get the idea. At first I wanted to try something new everyday for a year, but knowing myself a little too well, I was only setting myself up for failure. Instead I am going to start off with once a week and work my way up. What I record will be things I have never done before; some will be challenging, some will be fun, some will be silly, and others will push me to face my fears. So thanks to Alyssa and Amy I am venturing out on my first experience...starting a blog. Here goes nothing! :)