Throughout the years I’ve started and stopped journals and blogs, never getting very far. I took a class in college called “Autobiography” wherein I was expected to write over 20 pages of autobiographical information, but I’ve never been able to replicate that perseverance without a deadline. If you’re wondering as to the cause of my block, I have ADD and an over-developed personal critic. My early coping mechanism at the collegiate level for this was to stay up until the caffeine subdued my ADD and my internal critic fell asleep, allowing me to spew my thoughts coherently into the computer. In later years I would tap into my competitive side to develop coping mechanisms and the resolve to muscle past the blocks, although arguably the threat of deadline remained a form of propulsion.
The reason I keep coming back to this is I feel a responsibility to journal as a third generation language major on my mother’s side (Grandmother and aunt: English, mother: French). My grandmother kept a diary throughout the years that upon her death passed down to my mom, who has kept a diary or calendar for as long as I can remember. My mother in turn has insisted that I wait at least 10 years after her death before I can consider publishing a novel based on their lives using the collective diaries as a resource.
In May, while visiting my parents, I was forced to remove the remaining vestiges of my collegiate career from their basement. I’ve been leafing through some of my old writings since then, somewhat shocked by how heinous my writing was. If I’m able to stick with this, I will probably bring them out for your collective chuckles, albeit with serious amounts of preface to establish context.
I’ve pre-written a few posts in recent weeks so that I have something to kick this off with and develop momentum. I value any feedback you have to offer. Bear in mind that in my English career, my passions were Literature > spelling > grammar so I tend to use non-standard grammar of the Chicago vein, but I am getting ahead of myself as I’ve already written an entry for that.
