Beginings...

Hello... do you hear the echo? Digital letters bouncing off digital components and sailing off into the emptiness of cyberspace. Starting a blog is kind of a lonely thing. Putting your words out there for the world and then... waiting... is anybody out there?

The question that all of you (all two of you, hi Mom) must be asking yourself is who is this person and what possessed her at 11:22 on an idle Wednesday (March 3rd, 2010 to be exact) to put her voice out to the world?

Well to begin with (since this IS entitled beginnings) I have to make a confession. I hear voices. All the time. Constantly. Really. Somewhere in the crowded confines of my brain, between my shopping list, a host of useless 80s lyrics, and what time soccer practice is tonight, I have a whole community of characters. All vying for a piece of my brain. All trying to talk to me at once. All trying to tell me their stories.

Okay so if you've stayed with me this far, (hi Hon) you're probably wondering why you should care about my slight mental imbalance.

Be patient, I'm getting to that part but that requires another confession...

I'm an aspiring novelist, (aspiring, pre-published, hopeful, delusional, take your pick). After trying for a year to get my community of characters out of my brain and into the real world I've decided I need a new forum to share them with you. (Yes you, that sweet, open emptiness of cyberspace soon to be filled with my adoring fans.)

But this blog is not all about me, or even about the voices in my head. Because that would be BORING and SELF-CENTERED and I'd probably be better off writing this all down in my illegible handwriting and shoving it in a drawer. Or better yet, I could wash the dishes, do laundry, vacuum, or pick up my kids from soccer practice (or football, or piano, or scouts depending on the day).

This blog is about YOU. Specifically the teenaged and young adult YOUS. Why? Because the majority of the voices in my head are teenagers. Because I look back on high school as a crazy, wonderful, mixed up, fascinating part of my life. Because I find myself suddenly given the INSANE task of raising teenagers. Particularly insane because in my mind I'm still a teenaged kid only now I have a mortgage, an SUV, and four little people who look to me for (yikes!) guidance, protection, and unconditional love. Because suddenly all of those horrible things I said to my parents are being spouted back to me. But mostly because if I close my eyes I can still remember the tingly feeling of my first kiss in the parking lot of our rival high school (yes, I still remember Rob, and thank you). I can still remember horrible sinking loneliness and feeling like I'd never belong. I can still remember long talks with the best friends in the world. And I can still remember the free exhilaration of jumping off a bridge into the river on the hottest day of summer.

So this blog is for all of the teenagers (and former teenagers) out there. Those who like to read. Those who like to write. Those who have a story to tell. Those who are looking for a story that will tell them something.

Is that all vague and warm and fuzzy enough for you? Is it just a whole lot of words that don't tell you much about me or what I'm trying to accomplish with this blog?

Shh. Listen. This is just the beginning.