I’ve been toying with starting a blog for a long time now. I’ve worried about keeping up with it, and neglecting writing like I’ve been doing for a few years now. I’ve kept journals since I was roughly eight years old; my first journal was a green notebook modeled after the Anastasia Krupnik series! I’ve stopped wondering if anyone will be interested in reading my posts when I remember what an important role writing has played in my life from an early age.
I don’t remember exactly when I started to write. My parents were religious about reading books to me on a nightly basis. Picture books were read to me until the illustrations were committed to memory. Library visits were weekly staples. I was obsessed with the idea of checking out books! I poured over my borrowed books, and started paying close attention to words. I’m still fascinated with dictionaries and finding meaning for new words.
I guess “finding meaning” is why I was so interested in writing from an early age. The idea of having the ability to express myself through written word was the coolest concept! I started to keep a journal in third grade; my face was on the cover, so I reveled in how personal it felt. I detailed every aspect of my day in my crooked handwriting. I finally had a private place to cut loose and sort through the sheer confusion of being a nine year old.
When I was in middle school, I was the central definition of a geek. I had some close friends who were also classified as “geeks” on the middle school social scale, but I had an extremely hard time navigating outside of my small friend group. Writing was the safest outlet for security! I felt very safe trying to analyze my feelings and celebrating my interests that were often called “weird” outside of the confines of my journal.
You will soon discover the influence music has had on me. From an extremely young age, I was running around and responding to the music my parents were playing around the house. I didn’t really have many friends who were aware of the older music I listened to, so I turned to the magical land of the internet with the intention of writing about music. I couldn’t wait to reach a new level of music geekery, so I started writing product reviews on Amazon. I’ve deleted some of those reviews since then; who wants to read a 13 year old’s analysis of the first Pretenders album?!
The name of my blog is an extremely loving (I promise) tribute to my first blog I kept in high school. I embedded YouTube links and poured over b-sides from Susanna Hoffs, and tried to digest some grunge in an attempt to land a b-o-y. The image I selected is a “relic” from those MySpace days. I often sat down to write in that “Flashdance” inspired Goodwill find. I’m a little more insecure about my shoulders these days, but I’m not going to hesitate to write about how much I love “What a Feeling.”
I hope you enjoy reading this blog! I don’t know what direction I’ll take with it, but I’m looking forward to sharing my ~journey~ and detailing my ~experience~ trying to navigate this thing called ~life.~
Taylor Hodgkins 