starting here
I’m starting this blog because I’ve always been a big fan of journaling, but never considered switching to a digital (and much more publicly discoverable) platform until my random thoughts started to outpace the stamina of my grip. I hope to use this as a way to memorialize the day-to-day shouts and murmurs that percolate through the sludge, and even if it doesn’t become a way to connect with other people, at least it can hopefully be a way for future me to connect with the version of myself that exists today.
On the topic of starting, I was recently reminded that the subject I chose for my high school graduation speech was “getting started.” The takeaway from the speech was supposed to be that the most important, and often most difficult, part of most processes was getting started. As I graduated and fell into the rhythm of corporate America (in fact, probably one of the most corporate environments of corporate America), I realized that starting anything other than my typical routine became (or maybe just started to feel) very difficult. Even this blog - I’ve thought about a blog for a handful of years now before finally starting it today. But if you ask me what makes it so difficult, what makes starting anything difficult, I can’t really give you a logical reason. The barrier to entry for these things can be basically nothing, but that doesn’t really minimize the inertia of the status quo. If anything, I’d categorize myself as someone who normally struggles more with consistency and discipline over time (I’m easily distracted by shiny objects). I think of myself as someone who tends to have more interest and momentum at the beginning of something new, rather than the middle or end. Yet with the stability of routine 9 to 6 office work, a certain expectation of monotony has permeated my outlook. So I guess I’m trying to shed that expectation, first by starting this little project, and maybe then by venturing in other ways from here on out - too bad it took a decade to accept the advice of my teenager self.