First!

I am actually a bit surprised that I’m sitting here and writing on a blog.  Me.  A blog!  Whatever is the world coming to?

It took me a few moments of quiet contemplation to realize the chain of events that had brought us to this surprising outcome.  First, we have the friends.  The people whose lively social antics and implied peer pressure make the idea of jumping in oh-so exciting.  Second, we have the call to arms (as Campbell would say).  Recently, a colleague/hero/life mentor told me that my hang up on my dissertation proposal could be solved by just writing.  The first day I took her advice, I managed to get down 20 (pretty) coherent pages of material in a couple hours.  Since then, I’ve been quite sold on the whole “writing to think” method, though sadly derelict in continuing.  Turning this same wisdom on my personal life and growth, I realized that maybe writing out my thoughts and demons would help me to better challenge myself.

In that vein, I present the following thoughts, musings and cogitations.  While I am doing this for myself, I guess there’s value in publicity, the catharsis of the public confession and all.