So I started on this train of thought this evening about why do I blog, and what drives me to blog….
Simple. I love reading, I love writing, I love entertaining.
My love for reading goes back to a very young age. Some of my best memories are of my Mom and I reading. After we moved to Tennessee I didn’t have a “privileged” childhood by any means. When most kids were at the pizza-arcade-movies-stuffed animated character hell hole, Mom and I were at the library. We didn’t have cable and didn’t spend unnecessary money on movies and video games. It paid off, I started school ahead of the class, already able to read. I was fascinated by the school library, I had to wait to go to the public library once a week, but I thought I was in heaven when I realized I could go to the school library every day! Even after I started school, Mom pushed me to try harder and harder books, keeping me well above my grades average reading level.
My love for writing goes back to first grade. We had those old Texas Instrument computers and there was some program on there that allowed you to create your own stories and print them into “books”. I loved it. The thought of someone reading what I wrote fascinated me and I wanted to be the next Laura Ingalls Wilder. I didn’t have a computer at home for many years, but I remember purchasing my first old fashioned, manual typewriter, I wasn’t even ten years old yet. It was red, and your fingers would get stuck between the keys. It was at least twice my age, but it worked. I could write without having to try to keep my handwriting neat (all my life I have had horrid handwriting and at this point I could go to medical school on it it’s so bad!) That whole summer I spent writing. Bad stuff I’m sure. It didn’t matter, I wanted so bad to be a writer and I had so much in my head. People got sick of me talking all the time so I was forced to talk on paper.
My love of entertaining came before my love of reading. One of my very first loves possibly. Mom will still even tell stories of me at Meg’s age, directing family members to sit by my toy piano so I could play and sing for them. Stories of me climbing up on stages at various places and attempting dance routines. Growing up I loved singing, acting, public speaking, and just being in front of people. I enjoyed entertaining, the audience participation, the relationship between “the stage” and “the audience”. If there was a stage involved, I was there. (One of these days when I’m older and have lots and lots of wisdom to impart on large groups of people I want to be a motivational speaker. Now that would totally rock.) Part of the reason why I wanted to be a TV news anchor, it was an entertaining job where I could be on a whole different kind of stage.
I write my blog because I like giving people something different to read, I love it when people read what I write. I write my blog because it gives me a different stage to operate from and entertain. I write, because I breathe.