1. I'm tired of Facebook.
Facebook served a purpose in my life; namely, to help me stay in contact with family and friends who live far away. Then it got out of hand and took too much of my time away from the family and friends who live right beside me. There were times when I tried to cut back, but self-control was never one of my strong points. I think, in the end, 2020 killed the fun in it for me. I really don't have the time to just hang out online, or the energy to deal with all the drama, or the desire to engage with a virtual reality, or the interest in all the politics. I have a real life to live, and I'm going to go live it.
I still use Instagram because I like taking pictures of things I really do, places I really go, people I really see, and books I really read. Instagram is cool because I can set it to post to Facebook automatically for people who still like to keep track of me. When I create a new blog post, I'll post the link on my Facebook page and maybe take no more than ten minutes to catch up on stuff. However, I took the Facebook app off my phone because I refuse to carry the world with me everywhere I go, and the world doesn't need to know where I am and what I'm doing all the time.
2. I need to hone my writing craft.
Random, in the case of my blog title, means pick an essay idea out of a jar.
Yes, I have an actual jar stuffed with folded slips of paper printed with essay prompts. It's been sitting on a shelf collecting dust for well over a year because after I put it together for home school composition assignments -- I forgot about it. Also because I don't enjoy dusting.
Journal means I give myself a writing assignment I'm not allowed to turn down, limit myself to a word count, tell myself who my audience is, and start writing. In my blogger profile I have listed my occupation as "free-lance writer." You have to see yourself as who you want to be before you can become that person. I haven't sold any pieces yet, but this is something I think I'm good at, and I want to get better. This blog is where I will do that.
3. My life's focus is shifting.
When I first began blogging sixteen years ago I had eight children. I had a baby-turning-toddler, a preschooler, and six students doing home school. By the time I stopped blogging almost nine years later, two of my children were married and I had one grandchild. I was going through a severe crisis that was too personal to discuss in a public blog, so I had turned to actual pen-and-ink journaling in an actual paper journal. Now that crisis is mostly behind me. Though it's still hard for me to talk about it without getting emotional and a little panicky, things have been looking brighter and brighter as time has passed.
I now have almost six children married, my twelfth grandbaby is due next January, my last three boys are teenagers, and in five years our home schooling journey will be over. There are still demands on my time, but they are different demands now. I can devote time to writing that I couldn't before, and hopefully I'm a little wiser than I was then!
Incidentally, when I googled "blogger", thinking to start all over instead of revisiting the old blogs, my old blogger profile came up. Apparently somewhere in the matrix my password got saved??? Probably it's connected to my Google account. Google knows everything. Anyway, I was so aghast at my old profile that I sent this message to my oldest daughter: "That moment when you go back to your old blogger profile and realize how uptight and self-righteous you were....." I'm not sure I was much fun back then.
And yes, because I know someone's going to ask, the old blogs are still there. But I on purpose made it so hopefully you can't get there from here. :)
Well, that all took longer than I thought it would. Note to self: Set a timer when you write.
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