The text conversation between my sister and I yesterday:
Me – Maybe I should start a blog.
Whitney – I think that’s obvious. Do it today.
Me – How would I start it?
Whitney – I think you shouldn’t think about it too much and just do it.
But then I couldn’t stop reading Rachel Kushner’s Flamethrowers, so I postponed it until today. Here it is.
I have a kind of debilitating fear of anyone outside of a classroom setting actually reading things I write. I am aware of the irony of this predicament. And maybe this can be another step in the direction of overcoming it.
I’m a few weeks behind, but I don’t think it’s too late for the traditional “New Year’s Reflection” post. 2013 was a strange one. A year ago I was at home in a pretty low place. My plans to move to Boston had fallen through. I’d sent out grad school applications to a shameful number of programs, in 2 different subjects, and I felt stuck waiting for something to happen, with no idea what to do next. But after several stagnant months, I miraculously got into my top choice program. I got my first teaching job, as a teaching assistant for Duke’s Talent Identification Program. I spent the summer in Athens, GA. I missed Rome and Segovia. I went to Boston and visited college friends. I missed Providence. I missed Brown. I drove to Manhattan with my mom and moved into my first apartment. I started my MFA for nonfiction writing at Columbia. I went to 2 friends’ weddings and got to be a groomswoman. I got a job as a college counselor for GED students, and I volunteered as a creative writing teacher at a NYC high school. I made new friends and had some dinner parties. I turned 24. I flew on 16 planes, spent a month of nights in hotels and other people’s houses, 2 months in a University of Georgia dorm, and 100 days in my apartment, and lived in 3 different states. I read 70 books. I obsessively documented all of it so I can give you these numbers now.
And now I’m a quarter finished with grad school, and starting my second semester classes tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and I’ll figure out how to make this look more appealing before I post anything again.
