The art of the blog

I've dabbled in blogging in the past. It's a hard habit to keep up, rather time-consuming if you put decent effort into it. It certainly gives me a new respect for anyone who writes for a living. Words don't always come easily, especially when you're putting part of yourself into them. When writers can't find the words, it's tough noogies: no write, no eat. I, however, don't depend on blogging for the necessities, so whenever I become distracted or lose interest, I stop. Thus, It's been a while.

One thing I've found whenever I re-engage with the habit, though, is that I'm better for it. It helps me process what I'm going through, organize what I observe, and provides the catharsis that comes with externalizing one's thoughts (even if nobody is on the receiving end, as may well be true here). It's no coincidence that my period of most regular blogging was the period when I didn't really have another outlet that let me achieve those necessities. That blog from my time in Guatemala exists somewhere in cyberspace, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to log into it, so I'm starting from scratch.

Starting from scratch, or the idea of it, is what has brought me back to the blogosphere anyway, so it's rather fitting that I begin anew. I'm graduating in May and (hopefully) starting a new job and a new season of life shortly thereafter. Change like that has gotten me thinking about lots of things. One of the pressing questions is what I want to do when I graduate. That's a tough one, but I think I'm honing in on some semblance of an answer. The harder and more important question, though, deals with who I want to be when I graduate.

Change - especially such complete change that rips you from your roots, friends, structure, town - is an opportunity to reinvent yourself. In a new place with new people, you can be a completely new person. As I consider the question of who I want to be, I'm realizing that I have no idea. Thus, I've returned to blogging.

It's a completely selfish pursuit. I doubt I'll have any decent advice, conclusions, or wisdom in these posts, and maybe not anything worth reading at all. But I'm back at one of those points in life at which I need to put myself out there, to be heard.