A rambly blog beginning

And voila, my first words on the world wide web. A first blog post. Long and rambly it will be, I am sure.

I submit my words into the unknown ether, to be seen, swallowed, and digested by a million souls. Or perhaps just one. Who knows, after all.

It makes me laugh to think of starting a personal blog. It seems childish, doesn’t it? But you know, it’s also very warm and comforting.

I remember memorizing blog urls back in the day, before Google or the ability to bookmark links. I would copy my favourite blog urls down painstakingly into my diary, careful not to miss any random letter or number, not to mark a forward slash as backward, or accidentally make something capslock when it was lower case.

Why so much effort? Because reading them was like getting a hug. It was somebody out there speaking to me. So human and real. Even when they were annoying or offensive, I loved how human it was. It was like having a friend.

Not that I didn’t have friends – I did, lovely ones. But it was not often that you experience the kind of deep and personal revelatory ideas (and the accompanying connection) that you see on these personal blogs, with a grade school friend. The friends I had, I could laugh with, play with, tussle with – to have fun naturally in our school days.

But to share vulnerabilities, darker thoughts, innermost fears… these desires and experiences could not always fit easily into the bright, vividly colourful and noisy world of the school yard and classroom.

There they were, the words, written out by those who were likely a little older and wiser than me, speaking to me like a kind older brother or sister. The words that gave me comfort as I grew, different from the way stories do, different from the ways I spoke in person to others, different even from talking to myself.

Thank you for those words, those from the ether. They were magical to me – they still are. Herein, henceforth I will add some of my own.