Dear Readers,
I’ve never been good at making friends. It was easy in grade school and high school when you grew up with the same people, saw them in and out of hallways and classrooms and the library every day. In college, I realized just how fearful I was of people. They must all be blood-sucking fiends itching for their next hit, I tell you, with how scared I was of approaching them, raising my hand to utter an interesting thought in front of them, participating in English-related clubs for books and writing with them. It is slightly easier on the internet. There is a screen between you and the person you’re checking out as a potential friend, and I’ve always been better at writing to people than speaking to them in person, especially from the ground up when you have no background together and you are starting a potential friendship from square one.
It struck me the other day that I’m not a very active blogger. I mean, I’ve known this, you’ve probably known this, but it just hit me the other day as problematic. It’s not that I want to be glued to social media and the computer and scrolling through my phone like a red-eyed internet junkie; it’s just that I want to have friendships with you people and I just don’t know how to balance my blog friends with my in-person friends very well. Some of you are meeting up and making true, honest-to-God relationships, and I’m just over here like, “I grab coffee with my imaginary friends?”
Also, I have time constraints. There is so much that I want to do during the span of one small day, that it gets hard accomplishing blog comments, blog writing, creative writing, pleasure reading, working, and making sure the day-to-day people in my life don’t feel like I’m slighting them with my lack of attentiveness. I want to be here more — writing to you more, reading about you more, commenting on your writing more, and making sure you all know how much I love your faces on Twitter, because that’s where the majority of friendships happen with bloggers. I know the one thing that makes blogging a successful venture in terms of producing content, networking, and maintaining connections is consistency. It can be tough, but it can be done. I used to do it. I used to do it all the time and I was even matriculating full-time and working part-time while I did it. And homework! That at least counts as another part-time job.
All of this is to say, I’m refreshing myself and part of that process consists of me paying you all more attention. Please bare with me.
Best,
Ren
