Surprise! It’s me. I’m still here. What’s 14 months between friends, right? I’m sure we’ll pick right back up, like no time has passed, as all good friends do. Look, let’s just lay all our cards on the table here, 2017 was a roller coaster of a year where most days I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water, if I may mix three metaphors in one sentence.
When I get bombarded with too many stimuli, my body and mind enter into a state I’m terming: Internal Processing Survival Mode. My brain shifts into thinking overdrive, my energy gets funneled into only the things that need to be done by the end of the current day, and I require a lot more time alone to recover from being out in the world than I usually do. (And to be clear, the usual amount of time alone I need to recover my energy is already inordinate. All my fellow introverts, say HEY!)
If 2017 was wearing a t-shirt, it would just say “STIMULI” in big bold red letters.* This meant for me, a year of nearly continual Internal Processing Survival Mode, which left precious little brain power for writing.
As 2018 rolled around, though, something in me started to shift. My world has not slowed down. I can’t explain it other than to say, my inner self said, “It’s time to get back in there.” So, here I am.
But, I needed a reset. I redesigned my blog and I have a different plan going forward. I’ve archived all of my essays from 2013-2016 to another site. They can still be found by clicking the “Essay Archive” link in the menu, but I wanted a fresh start on Maybe You Can Relate.
I’m working on a longer form writing project that I’ve wanted to do for several years, but it’s a long-term project that I will be working on behind the scenes. I didn’t want to not publish anything else while I am working on it, but I wanted to be realistic about the fact that I don’t have enough mental and physical bandwidth or time to write essays here every week while also working on my other project.
Instead, I started a journal-esque category on my blog I’m calling “Today: Daily randomness. Published weekly.” In an effort to get my mind used to thinking like a writer again, looking for stories in daily life, I will try to come up with one small thing to record every day. I didn’t want to actually post them every day though, hence the “Published weekly.” part. It might be a photo, or a thought or fact from my day, or just a nonsensical bit of humor from my brain. If it has hashtags in it, it’s probably something I posted on social media as well.
I started recording things for MYCR/Today on January 1st, so the first post contains entries from then until today.
The understanding and community I feel between the people I interact with in this world, in person and online, by glimpsing into their daily lives and thoughts, and letting them glimpse into mine, is something I truly treasure. So, to all of you who have taken the time to follow my rambling over the years, thank you. You are appreciated and thought of more than you know.
Here’s to 2018, everybody!
*Behind The Scenes Writer’s Commentary: My writer’s brain is rusty. I really was hoping for a better joke there. However, I so enjoy the idea of the year 2017 wearing a t-shirt, that I left the line as is. Bad editing? Yes. But this is just my personal blog. I’m not trying for a Pulitzer here.
