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“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”
-Margaret Atwood

It started with a #hashtag.  I played around with a shot of my daughter on Instagram. Attempting to create an original hashtag, I came up with #nerdsbegetnerds.  Because they do.  It isn’t a bad thing.  I tagged my photo and found I wasn’t the first to do it. Damn. @dioramamama and @berzandrews beat me to it.  Nope. Don’t know them. However, they have been the only two ever since. I’ve slowly claimed it because at the time I thought of it, I figured I was first.  But I’m not the only brilliant genius in the universe and I ate that slice of humble pie with a scoop of ice cream.  It’s (still) tough to be original. Although I can attest that it was my original creation, at that moment, the other two posts deflated my ego’s creativity.  It’s okay though. I’m using it now.

“I propose that you seek in yourselves remembrance of the Before, and write what you find, and believe your words.”

-Laura (Riding) Jackson

I’m a writer stuck in a non-writer’s life through circumstance and choice. Life happens. Life is busy.  Life gets crowded.  Life becomes stagnant.  You find that the core of your livelihood gets tucked away like one tucks a mint in the cheek to dissolve until it goes through you as if it never existed.

After much contemplation and prodding, I’ve created my own place and finally have the guts to put it out there.  Who knows what will become of it?   Getting started with a blog is like trying to figure out if it’s the right time to have kids.  There isn’t a right or a wrong time.  You grit your teeth and embrace it with all of the unknowns.

Being a perfectionistic procrastinator–not a role of which I’m satisfied–I kept pushing this away.  But it kept nagging me.  I have kids.  I have zero time.  I’m a teacher (enough said). I’m not good enough. I don’t have a topic. I can’t find a name for my blog.  And on and on and on…because I researched blogging.  Other people snagged my potential titles.  There are rules to help you get started.  It’s those damn rules that get me.  And learning to use the technology (that is a future post). My personality continues to think things have to be done in a certain order.  Then something else has to happen and if that something doesn’t happen just right, then it won’t happen at all.  To hell with it.

In October, I attended a workshop.  John Phillip Santos spoke about memoir writing and how our cultural histories and our families continue to tell our stories. If we let them.  He spoke about his mentor, Laura (Riding) Jackson, and I copied her quote from his presentation.  I proceeded to take notes and wound up with my first post.  I found my topic: memoirs.  The line came to me.  It started with a #hashtag… and my copious note taking from the front row of an intimate workshop where I bumped elbows with those seated next to me became this.