'Write a blog about it.'
It's amazing how whenever people begin a new chapter in their lives, be it training lions in Kenya to dance or trying to solve the missing-sock-in-the-dryer epidemic (clearly this is one field of research not getting NEARLY enough government funding), the first response is 'write a blog about it'.
Our world changes so quickly. By the time I will have posted this, approximately twelve different pop icons will have gone through hastily patched up divorces, only to then marry their nanny's sisters; scientists will have discovered that x food prevents cancer, only to have a group of rival scientists dismiss that as complete and utter bullshit, when clearly y food will do the trick; and so on.
One of these many changes is, of course, The Blog. A lifeform that crawled out of the primordial ooze that is the internet, first a fledgling flimsy little thing flitting about trying to find its place in the Great Circle of Internet Life. But now, The Blog is formidable indeed, having dominion over a vast kingdom of bloggers and their followers.
I suppose I'm now to be counted among the ranks of its subjects.
How did it come to be this way? Well, as I'm sure I'll mention in many posts to come, I've moved to Japan from the United States to teach English. The specifics of it are another matter for another post, but suffice it to say that my life now is, um, significantly different from how it was before. And if other people are keeping blogs about how their Yorkshire puppy is teething now ('Oh, the little tyke got to my shoes again today! Third time this month, the little basta--I mean scamp, hahahaha!'), then surely I'm allowed to--nay, virtually required to--keep a blog about my life now.
Or so I was told by a number of my friends. I feel a bit like a five year-old whose parents are encouraging her to hang her frankly pretty abysmal finger painting on the fridge. Only the fridge is super, super public. Those parents should probably consider remodeling. Who knows what the neighbors can see from that bay window of theirs.
"Who the hell am I to keep a blog? I'm only slightly more exciting than watching paint dry, and even that depends on the kind of paint," I thought to myself as I sat alone in my dimly lit room lamenting my fate, watching the outside world go on existing, unaware of my soul-crushing agony as I sought a raison d'être.
But then I turned on the life and shut off the Morrissey and got to thinking...always a dangerous thing to do...
Some of my favorite blogs, like Hyperbole and a Half, for instance, aren't about searching for the meaning of life or anything about that. They're about regular people, doing regular things.
How are these blogs interesting, I wondered to myself.
Well, they just are.
We can relate to them. We realize that hey, other people out there have had similar experiences as us and our friends/family. And they tell us about it in a way that is both relatable and entertaining. These blogs make us laugh, cry, vomit (ok, hopefully not vomit), and we love them for it.
I don't pretend to be a skilled writer. One of my favorite teachers in high school gave me a book of Dorothy Parker essays that I loved, which inspired me to pursue my newfound, surely lifelong dream of being a writer...which lasted about a week. But, oh! what a week.
There isn't going to be a theme to this blog. This isn't going to be like a Robert Downey, Jr. movie where he always plays the same role (himself...though he is frustratingly good at it). Expect everything to be quite varied and quite random.
In spite of (because of?) all this, I hope you can come to laugh, cry, or even vomit if you so choose at my posts. Though, if you do choose to vomit, please keep that to yourself, thanks ever so.
'Write a blog about it,' they said.
Don't mind if I do.
