Life lesson: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." For my 50th birthday, I am taking the plunge. For several years, I've been an avid reader of blogs and have wanted to jump in. For the last few months I've been planning and prepping, searching for the perfect blog name and trying out different templates on Blogger. Last week I read an article on Gretchen Rubin's blog (http://happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2009/01/your-happiness-project-dont-let-the-perfect-be-the-enemy-of-the-good/) and today, even though "it's not ready and it's not the best name and it doesn't look as good as everyone else's blog" I am letting the perfection go and giving myself the gift of "You can do this and you can always make changes later!" Happy Birthday to me.
I have long considered myself a writer. This is odd, since I don't really write much compared to "real" writers. Through the years I've journaled, and I've turned our photos and my journaling into scrapbooks, but every time I've tried to write fiction I've floundered. Perhaps one doesn't need to write fiction to be a writer? Poetry class during my freshman year of college cured me of the thought that I could write poetry. (It'll do that - it happened to my daughter also.) I've read books by authors who say things like, "I am compelled to write. My characters speak to me until I put their words and actions into my story." Huh. This has never happened to me.
A few years ago, my eldest child and only daughter did a 13th year of high school as a foreign exchange student in Germany. Of course, I missed her terribly. She had a difficult time adjusting to some aspects of her new life and was enrolled in a calculus class that was a terrible placement for her. Having just found out about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, see http://www.nanowrimo.org/) Tory and I both enrolled that November. Tory (see her blog here: http://starcityrunner.blogspot.com/) actually completed her novel. Mine, about ten chapters long, is still saved on a flash drive somewhere, probably in the junk basket under my desk. I don't consider it a failure - it's the first time I ever really tried to write a long fiction piece, and truly, I have never written a fiction piece I actually liked, so a novel was a real stretch for me. It was an interesting experience and I would recommend it. Maybe I need to think about trying it again this year. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, I have lots of great life experiences I plan to write about, many fun topics on my list, and I am excited to get going. I have always loved teaching and have learned that a great teacher is one who is so enthusiastic about her subject that her students can't help but want to learn. I hope you'll enjoy learning with me.
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