Prologue i -- The First Step

A little under a decade ago, I made a (not so) noble attempt at keeping a blog. Not that it was called a blog then--oh no, it was just journaling online. Unsurprisingly, the home of my journal was LiveJournal. I managed to keep it going for about two years, from 2000 to 2002.

Why did I stop? Well, it was a combination of several things, but the largest contributor was that I had left for college and flat didn't have time for it any more. While I have written the occasional post since then on various social networking sites, they were not a serious attempt at keeping a blog. Rather, they were "I want to communicate something to a bunch of people I don't have email addresses for any more but may check this page." That, or doing memes on Facebook.

(Yes, I did do the 20 things meme. Your point is?)

To be quite honest, it isn't anything I've really had a desire to pick back up since then, either. This begs the question of why I'm attempting to start it back up now.

Truthfully, it is once again a combination of several factors, but the biggest reason is that I miss having a creative, interactive outlet. From the time I started high school until July of last year, I was doing theatre pretty much non-stop. I may have had the occasional month here or there where I had time away from it, but even then I was thinking about the next show. I had a forum in which to communicate with the world around me, even if no one actually knew I was there.

Last summer I was working on a lighting rig for a theatre company and managed to screw up my hips fairly badly, to the point where I really can't climb around with fifty pounds of equipment any more. As such, I decided to leave theater and try to settle down into the "real world" and make my way in that. A year later I'm itching to get back into theatre, but I am waiting until my husband finishes his masters in music before I go back for my own masters in theatre.

(Sweet, I just made my first reference to my husband! Awesome!)

Since I'm looking at at least another year of mundane worklife, I've decided I need some consistent form of creative outlet that isn't Rock Band or the Sims 3 (both of which I am addicted to, but aren't exactly enough to satisify my craving to communicate with an audience, even if that audience just turns out to be Sam and Sherri). This thought has plagued me for the past month or so, but I couldn't think of what that "creative outlet" should be.

Then, my dear sister sent me links to some friends' blogs that I used to follow before losing internet access for six months, including a new one that my friend Will has since started up. Now, Will made a resolution to do 365 days of blogging going from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009, and he's done an amazing job keeping up with it (up to Day Two-Hundred Twelve!). I was immediately taken with the idea and wanted to do it myself. (Yes, I am completely, totally, and utterly unoriginal. This should come as a surprise to no one.) [Editor's note: according to Will he actually started it on January 12th. Yep, I'm observant.]

I had obviously missed the opportunity to start on January 1 and have no desire to wait until next year to start this. And while I could just say that August 12, 2009 is day one, it felt a little... lacking. Besides, what was going to be the point of this blog, aside from just giving me a soap box to ramble on for awhile? It was at this time that the little light above my head went off and I thought Hey, my birthday is next Monday, and I'll be turning 25; so why don't I do the 365 day thing but have it "officially" start on my birthday? I could say the "official" purpose of the blog is to chronicle my 25th year of life! (It is so much "fun" making "use" of "quotation marks" [Like that joke's never been done. I told you I was unoriginal].) Having made that decision, however I didn't want to actually wait until Monday to start this, because by then I'd probably give into laziness and not even start.

Hence why I am starting today with my "Prologue," with the intent of beginning my training to do this every day, even if it is only a short post with a few links to things I like. And yes, there will be short posts like that--I promise!--despite the length of this first post.

Until then, I leave you with the following quote:

"Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is started, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance."
--Robert Collier (American motivational author, 1885-1950)