2. Google. This is my homepage at home, and I use it for all sorts of things, just like you do. Work, play, images, directions, phone numbers. You know how to use google, I don’t need to tell you.
3. An educational portal for my students called eboard. This one is my homepage at work. On it I put weekly spelling and vocabulary words, links to websites I want them to visit, messages for parents, and other general information. I update it weekly, based on our curriculum. There is an annual fee for this site, but I’ve been using it for several years and have tons of information on there that I use annually, so for me it’s worth every penny.
So here’s my latest conundrum: I’ve been writing these daily passion prompt pieces, and publishing something new every day. So, you may ask, why is that a conundrum? ( I just love the word conundrum, how exciting to get to write it three times in three sentences!) Well, here’s the issue. As I respond to these questions, I focus on what the prompt is asking me. This is fine. It’s even a good thing. After all, that’s the whole point of having prompts. But as I focus on these prompts, they tend to take me away from the things on which I really want to focus.
I’m here to get my act together. I’m here to get healthy and fit and try to have a little fun along the way. I’m here to write and blog and publish and learn how to cultivate an audience and focus my thoughts (I know… Not my strong suit). I like challenges, and so far I’m seven days into a thirty-nine day challenge. I know I can complete the challenge. I can produce thirty-nine responses to questions designed to help me lead a better and more fulfilling life. And I want to do it. I want to start something and successfully finish it. Not that I’m a slacker. I’m not. But I’m starting to question whether I should keep writing these daily passion prompts. I’m starting to wonder if they’re actually diluting the quality of my writing and taking me away from the reasons I started blogging to begin with.
What I really want to write about now is my first boxing lesson. The problem is, the more I write the less I feel like anyone is reading. I fear I’m becoming white noise. Background music. Something that always just sort of buzzes around, but you feel like you can’t keep up with it, so you stop even trying. I don’t want that. I want to write pieces that are fresh and real. I want them to be full of humor or raw emotion or pain or triumph. I think maybe I need to stop talking so much or I’ll lose not only my audience, but my own true voice.
How do your friends, family, or coworkers finish the following sentence when they’re talking about you?
“You should be a _______”
Oddly I’ve never been told that I would make a fantastic deep sea fisherman. Nobody has ever suggested a career in stucco removal or bee keeping. I have yet to meet anyone who sees in me a talent for tightrope walking or bear wrestling. I do, however, keep hearing that I should write.
I do write. You’re reading it. I hear often that I’m a fairly decent writer, and sometimes people actually enjoy reading what I have to say. It’s occasionally thought provoking or amusing or enlightening (ok, maybe that one’s a stretch). But I’m told that I should “really” write. I’m not exactly certain what that means.
Do they think I should chuck my career and hole up in a cabin in the woods to produce the great American novel? I don’t think I’m a novelist. Or should I be writing reams of educational theory? Maybe something more practical like teachers’ guides would be up my alley. Or perhaps I could author a craft book of some sort. Quilting, anyone? Or scrapbooking? Of course I could just expound upon my life and times with a rockin memoir.
In spite of all these great ideas, I suppose it might be wise to start with somewhat smaller aspirations. Maybe getting a magazine or journal article published would be a good place to begin.
I know many authors. Some of them are extremely prolific, others are more like one hit wonders. Some of them are academics, laboring under a publish or perish doctrine and others are dabblers in the arts who feel the need to chronicle their ” journey.” Why not me? I can do this. I can write.
I could create an alternate world inhabited by imaginary characters that you just have to know more about. Or I could document and publish a book about my current educational endeavors. Or maybe poetry would be the correct venue for my self-expression? I’m just not sure.
Right now, while I try to figure it all out, I’ll stick to blogging. My mental gymnastics and hops from one train of thought to another don’t seem to be an issue here, so this is the perfect venue for me to try to get in touch with my inner author while I write, write, write. Stay tuned, and keep reading. I may publish something “real” yet.
BulgingButtons 