(Whilst learning about blogging and even more, how to be consistent in and around real life, today I’m resorting to re-posting my not-so-famous first – and only – post from my also not-famous one-post-blog that I started over two years ago – on June 9, 2017. )
(Also – could there be more dashes in an intro?)
I’ve always been one for good beginnings, for auspicious dates. I like to start projects on meaningful days. And this blog, my newest project, I hope to be both meaningful and auspicious.
Today I am forty-nine and 9. Nine is my favorite number. I was born on the ninth day of the ninth month. So I am three months from the Big 5-Oh. It is a good day to start my blog, my blog that has existed in my head for oh, probably more than nine years.
I’m not even sure if blogs are cool anymore. But I’m about to be fifty and cool might be a moot thing at this point. I set June 9 as my expiry date, the day I NEEDED to finally get this baby off the ground. And so, without further ado, I begin with:
NINE REASONS WHY I’M STARTING THIS BLOG
1. I have always wanted to be a writer. I have memories from my childhood of swinging back and forth dreaming about being an author. I’m not sure whether I care anymore about being an author. It’s not really about getting published now. I just want to write. I write, therefore I AM a writer. Ta-dahhhhh! Magic.
2. That not-caring-about-being-an-author-crap being said, I’d like to give it a shot. Some of my best friends are authors. Not actually, just that I have discovered sooooo many writers that get me. I’d like to try be that for someone else.
3. Therefore, this blog will be great practice. Because the only way you get good at something is by doing it. And I’m hoping for accountability here. I’m a good finisher, so if I start something, I will probably finish it. And because blogs aren’t meant to be finished, I hope to keep writing till I’m dead. Did that make any sense?
Four. I need a dang place to dump all the stuff going on in my head. I don’t just think about things, I am constantly writing about them in my head. In that sense, I feel like I’ve had a lot of practice. Buuuuuuuut… without actually writing things down, I’ve lost a lot of thoughts. And I have a sneaking suspicion some of them were good.
Cinquo. I love the feeling of my fingertips on a keyboard. Is that weird? Can I get an amen here from anyone? So sometimes I don’t write on my computer for awhile and then I have to bang out an email or something and my fingers say YESSSSSSSS!!!!! So I owe it to my fingers. They’ve been good to me all these years, pointing and scratching my head and scooping up cookie batter. They complete me.
Le Six. I love words. Let me say it again: I LOVE WORDS. I would be dead (in my soul) without words, without The Word, without reading and ‘riting. This will be my homage to all things encased in random arrangements of the letters of the alphabet.
7. It is good to be known. I’m an introvert – surprise! No, seriously, some of you who actually know me may not believe this because you think I’m all outgoing and stuff. Which I can be. But given the chance I will choose the quiet company of myself (or my husband, the one person in the world I can be alone together with). This does not always serve me well. People are important. Relationship is important. But you only get there if you share, if you GET KNOWN. And the written word is the most manageable (read: controllable!) way I feel comfortable with disclosure to the world at large.
8. Because I have an expiry date. At least, here on earth, which is my only chance to impact eternity. And turning fifty feels like expiry is all the more looming. I mean even if I live to be 100, that’s only 50 more years to do all the things I want to do and write about them!
Niner. (Rhymes with finer, diner, opiner, miner, whiner…I could go on….) Because this could be fun. Playing with words and ideas. Bouncing them outta my head and onto the page.