Why Right.

I am starting a blog. Well I guess it makes more sense to say that I started a blog. At the same time, it doesn't make much sense to say this at all. By the act of you reading this, you must have gathered enough evidence to deduce that I have, in fact, started a blog. Me projecting this internal monologue is going nowhere fast, so starting a fresh paragraph might be my best option here.

Hello Internet. I'm not sure if we have formally met. Sure, I use you for email, I have captured and shared pieces of myself on Facebook, I have laughed at the funny pictures you have shown me, I've cried listening to sappy YouTube compilations, I have embarked on deep and intellectual experiences thanks to you, I have seen evidence of extreme shallowness through you, I have been informed because of you, I have been misinformed because of you, I've probably lost brain cells because of you and I have wasted a lot of time with you. But blogging through you (with you? at you? to you? for you?) I expect to be an entirely new animal.

I've been told that I "should" write a blog. This advice has been given under varying degrees of circumstance, so I don't expect that there is one overarching reason that this is true. There is no black and white set of standards which separates the bloggers from the non bloggers. What I have decided to do is first answer the question: why? If I can answer that question, then I think writing a blog might be something that I should do. So three paragraphs later, this is an explanation of why I am here:

I do not write to be perfect. There is a grammatical error in this post's title. I figure that if the first thing I ever do on a blog was a mistake, then expectations thenceforth would be set at the approximate standard I hope to exceed. Roll with it.

I do not write to educate. I am not sure I would begin to know how.

I do not write to be popular.

I do not write with the promise of being original. There are a lot of opinions out there. Some I probably share. Some are probably pretty close to mine. My content is my own. I like to think of myself as a creative person. This is a positive perception to carry. I'd prefer not to hear evidence otherwise.

I do not write for you. I think doing so would be extremely vain. I also don't think that I would enjoy it.

I do not write to be funny. Well, I do not write strictly to be funny. I hope that I can at least encompass a minimal amount of content in whatever I choose to write. On that note,

I do not write with a specific agenda. Do you want to know the first thought that kept me from writing a blog? (This is the moment I realized every question I ask in a blog post is rhetorical) The fact that this is permanent. What if I run for political office one day? Do you know how detrimental it could be to be called out for some jackass remark my 23 year old self made online 30 years prior? I suppose this is me conceding that when Mr. Wiggin told my 9th grade Civics class "You know, one of you could be President one day." this was in the broadest possible sense of the word could. I do not suspect to be in the fraction of a percentage of American's who run for office. On the off chance I do though, I am still boycotting Twitter.

I do not write for a specific purpose. I don't expect this to be a sports blog, a travel blog, a political blog, a comedic blog, a blog about current events, a blog about history, a blog about specific hobbies or a blog about culture. This is going to be a blog about whatever occurs to me to put in writing.

So I think I write to think more. Writing helps me digest. It helps me hash out internal debates. There is a certain amount of clarity that writing enables a person to feel. This is why I find joy in writing. It is a form of expression that I am not sure I can otherwise experience. I like it.

You caught me. I haven't been answering why I might be in the category of people who "should" blog. To that, I present this tangent: I was walking through Cambridge today thinking about my potential blog. It occurred to me that blogs have titles. This seems important in a blog. A title can help attract an audience. It can describe the intended personality of the contents. It can probably also be nothing more than a title. Seconds after this scrolled through my head, Pandora gave me a gift. The Beatles' song Twist and Shout started playing. First of all, I am a firm believer that The Beatles are the best thing to happen to music since God invented sound. Secondly, I am a firm believer that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of the best films of the last 200 years. (For anybody who doesn't understand what this has to do with Twist and Shout and is expecting a YouTube clip of one of the most iconic movie scenes of all time, I'm not sure that we share enough common interests for this or any subsequent blog I write to be relevant to you).

Thirdly, twist and shout is exactly what I am here to do. I'm here to try something new. I am here to experiment with a little bit of fun. I am here to be a little different. I am here to project what is going on in this over-sized dome of mine. I'm here to shake it up baby.