For about nine months now, I’ve been consumed with the idea of starting a blog. I’m not sure exactly when or how the idea took root, but the timing does roughly coincide with the completion of my doctorate – a painfully long process that threatened more than once to suck the life right out of me. (For some humorously accurate information about what it is like to be a graduate student, check out http://karenzgoda.org/2012/06/03/graduate-student-barbie/). So, maybe blogging seemed like opportunity for catharsis. Or maybe I’d been away from my creative writing too long, and was just feeling the pent-up need to write anything decidedly not academic in nature. For whatever reason, the idea of blogging sounded great except for one teeny-tiny problem: I had no idea what to blog about.
The question of a topic or theme nagged at me constantly. I was convinced I could not start a blog without having one, and the fact that I could not think of something specific began to erode my self-confidence. Maybe I shouldn’t blog at all, I thought. Maybe I don’t have anything important or interesting enough to say. Maybe no one will read my blog, anyway.
Even as I was unable to think of a theme for a blog, I was constantly thinking of content for individual posts. I would try a new craft or recipe and want to blog about the results; I would read a book and want to blog about how it impacted me; I would have an interesting conversation with a colleague or student and want to philosophize further on the topic. Finally, I realized what all of these topics had in common – they were all about me just trying to learn and grow and be the best I can be. So, at the risk of sounding supremely egotistical, this blog is about me – more to the point, about my journey (and love) of lifelong learning and about my quest to enjoy a simple life in this crazy, hectic world.
Full disclaimer: I ain’t perfect, y’all. (Though I am from the south, which clearly gives me a leg up). I screw up on a regular basis. I tend to be prideful. I dream big, but don’t always follow through. I am a Christian, and my daily prayer is for God to help me “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” with Him. I pray this because I am painfully aware of the fact that I can’t do those things on my own. But when I allow Him to filter and prioritize my thoughts, words, and actions, life usually turns out pretty good. So, if you’re interested in following the journey of a real person – warts and all – then this might be the blog for you. If you want to learn with me as I try to grow and become all that I can be in whatever time I’ve been given – well, then, you are officially being invited along for the ride.
Crazy World, Simple Life 