This blog will function as a few things:
1. A mode of documenting my semester abroad.
2. An online gathering place for the people who want to know about my semester abroad.
3. A way to learn how to blog. (I'm so, so bad at it. This is my 7th attempt at a first entry.)
And, as this is my first entry (and by that I mean my 7th), I want to disclose a few things about how the rest will likely go:
1. I've never been able to journal because the (felt) pressure of free-writing totally paralyzes me. I figure the more I write, the more comfortable I'll feel writing. So I plan to write a lot.
2. I feel things deeply and so I find profundity in everything.
3. (1) and (2) mean that I'll write a lot about things I find to be profound (everything) so I apologize in advance if this turns out to be the world's most boring and self-indulgent blog ever started. (But there's gotta be an over-representation of boring and self-indulgent people on the blogosphere.)
4. I'm really into parenthetical statements.
5. My writing here will be bad.
6. I'm incredibly self-conscious about blogging.
Someday (specifically 5 from now) I'll have things to blog about besides my blog. Until then, here are some more things to know about my blog:
1. I have no "ideal reader" in mind. My blog will be visited at one time or another by my Grandma (Hi, Grandma!), my parents, my girlfriends (who are anywhere from 16 years old to 22 years old), my guy friends (who are anywhere from gay to not gay), and (hopefully not but in all likelihood) my future employers. So I'm just going to try to be as authentic as possible without ruining any relationships.
2. Part of my self-consciousness stems from my fear that I'll write things that no one will want to read, which would make me self-indulgent and insensitive to my readership. But I've decided I'd rather take that risk than have anxiety about blogging. So here's to blogging without shame! Let's hope I make a toast to myself in every subsequent entry!
And one thought I'm having at the moment about my time in London:
I don't want to feel like a college student or an American or, least of all, like an American college student studying abroad. I just want to feel like me--the most essential me that transcends the hats I've worn and will wear--living in a new space, exploring it (and thereby exploring myself) as completely as possible.
