Let us start from the very beginning. It was a sunny day on 3rd June 1998 at 13:59, I was in character, late as always and C’est La Vie was number one. Okay, Grace nobody cares, let’s fast forward.
Then came the millennium, moved house, I might of broken my nose, high school, French exchange, Brace, French Exchange, America, blog, French Exchange – WAIT!
Blog. That’s what I wanted to talk about.
This day last year, I sat at this very laptop and my mouse hovered over the “Publish” button.( This is all vague memory and logical fabrication by the way, at the time, I did not see what I was about to do as a milestone therefore I did not make the effort to remember that specific moment in my history.) Yet, I do seem to recall the urge to delete the whole blog thinking I would be made a fool of. It would just be another source of time wasting, in other words, just another product of my procrastination.
Conveniently, I had recently learnt the word procrastination and reminded of an oxymoron due to some English lessons on poetry. Within one of these fabulously fun lessons, a bald Scotsman rumoured to be rather amusing interrupted our learning to tell us about a competition.
There are a few things to bare in mind at this point:
- I had recently returned from the USA and the trip was so mind-blowing I had been left at an anti-climax (a.k.a Neston).
- I would probably have done anything to make my life that bit more interesting.
- I’d previously entered a few poems online and a few short stories in to my teacher and been published a couple times.
- I’m a teenager and sometimes we do things we don’t normally do for the ride.
Create a blog. And compete to get the most widespread audience.
What’s the worst that could happen? I thought. Except I didn’t really think about it, I just clicked Publish.
I sat and hit refresh. Over and over and over. And still the numbers went up. It was like a endless round of applause after a performance. It was brilliant.
Suddenly, the words “create a blog” weren’t quite as simple and noncommittal as they it sounded. Once I had followers, I felt an obligation to share my experiences with these people who I would never meet in person. It gave me more confidence to know that people who were on the other side of the planet as well as my classmates and family were enjoying something entirely my own creation.
“It’s the taking part that counts” is one of those phrases that makes you want to punch the person who said it, or the winner to vent your frustration. However I couldn’t do that because the Scotsman left to be a brilliant teacher elsewhere and failed to announce a victor.
Although, at that point I really didn’t care that much because writing this blog had become a hobby rather than a chore, I enjoyed writing rant upon poem upon rant because – well I didn’t really know why (and I still don’t) but I loved it all the same.
Anywho, I’d like to say thanks to anyone who has even once read a blog post because you made it feel worthwhile.
So Happy Birthday Productive Procrastinating!
productive procrastinating 