Whenever I want to type, “last year was challenging,” I always feel the need to write about the year before that for context, because that year was challenging, too. But then that year requires the previous year for context, and so on. I have to go back to when my life went from manageable and relatively calm to one filled with precipitous highs and lows across every facet of my life.
I believe there is a line in our lives when we become not only self-sufficient and self-supporting, but when our loved ones (whether they’re children, spouses, parents, or grandparents) begin to depend on us, while we juggle the responsibilities of our own lives. For me, that’s when I turned 31.
Now’s the part where a blog narrative usually gives details, and this is where I usually stumble. As you can see from the few posts I’ve made this year, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with revealing personal details about my life. I come from a long line of “non-whiners” … we just shrug off whatever setback has come into our lives and move forward, inexorably. More importantly, much of the tumult occurred to loved ones, and I want to respect their privacy. But I’m also a writer, and the entire point of writing is to reveal. I admire writers like the late Jay Lake or my friend and interviewee Steven Harper Piziks. They’ve fearlessly discussed the highs and the lows of their lives. They also wrote about mundane topics and reviewed films or books.
It’s become clear to me that while I work on projects for other people, and my own projects, I need a platform to just … write.
So here we are. I’m not sure where this latest writing journey will take me, but I’m planning to find out. I will write at least a couple of times per month, with one planned recurring topic. Stay tuned for more on that.
Your comments are always welcome. So, if you’re willing, please tell me when you first considering yourself an adult?
