Blogging and the Summer of No Homework

I've been told and often thought to myself that college is whatevs-- a degree helps, but doesn't guarantee anything. College isn't for everyone, either, and I don't mean that in some condescending some-people-are-too-stupid-for-college way. College isn't for everyone because many paths lead to the same destination, and that destination is personal success, however you define that. Anyway, even though I haven't yet figured out what my personal success looks like, college was for me. It took me a while to realize it, especially because the early stuff-- biology, psychology, linguistics, etc.-- were not really relevant to my interests (okay, linguistics kind of was, but it was friggen HARD, yo) and were required courses. When I met the right teachers and took the relevant classes, though, things improved. And I guess I should sort of point out here that I earned my degree in English and a certificate in Women's Studies.

The really valuable things that my English studies taught me, though, weren't necessarily the course lessons (how to do a close reading, how to use editing marks, the significance of 18th century literature in regards to book publishing and reading as a whole), they were the relationships forged between instructors and classmates as well as discovering who I am as a writer, reader, and even teacher. I really (and not just theoretically) embraced writing as a process, and in so doing, also embraced sharing my writing (at any stage of the process) with other people. I gained confidence in my abilities, learned to value my voice and point of view, and realized that other people (not related to me) had confidence in me, too.

And really where all of this is leading is this: I want to write. I didn't really know if that was where I wanted to go, and if you ask me, I still don't even know WHAT I want to write. I never identified as a writer because I never had those writerly "Oh, I simply must write or I'll die" kind of pangs. And then it dawned on me only very recently that that's not true. I write all the time and I think about writing all the time-- about blogging, about social media posts and comments, about emails to coworkers or professors, about text messages to friends and family. I might not be thinking about character or plot development, but I'm always looking at photographs, movies, commercials, or print ads and thinking, "I can write an entire paper about why this is problematic/beneficial/insulting/racist/sexist/ableist."

So, to that end, I've decided to revamp my blog to get my voice out there-- to be able to point to a body of my own work without waiting around for some website or publisher to decide what's worth publishing (I'm a trained writer and editor, dammit!).  I've been working on it, and when it's done, I'll share that information with all three of you who read my blogs. But it's taking a while because I'm trying to figure out Wordpress and finding the right representation of me, and while I've been doing that, I haven't actually been writing. You know how it is, right? I got to prepare to get ready for the anticipation of my writing. I should just friggen write, yeah? So until that site's shared, I figure I should continue to post here as often as I can so I don't lose momentum. And it feels good to write. I hate this posting already, honestly, but I'm writing so that feels good. I have no homework, no semester to worry about, no reading list to anticipate, no professor to impress. I have time and a list of ideas. Be prepared. I'm going to write whatever comes to mind. It won't always be pretty or make sense or be a medium, easy-to-read length, though I'll try to put an honest effort into it most of the time, but the point is just to write. Maybe you'll see it in a more refined form in the new Wordpress blog or not. I don't know.

The point is just to write.