Dear readers and friends, welcome to the Wilderness Inkwell. This blog has been a long time coming. I’ve had this feeling for over 5 years now, that I wanted to get my writing out there into the world, yet every time I tried to get started, I’d freeze. Then self-doubt crept in…“No one is going to want to read my writing, why even bother?”...”It feels too personal for a stranger on the internet to read”… “What if I fail and no one likes it?” And the fears and excuses went on and on for years. I’d hide behind a wall of perfectionism, trying to find the “perfect” blog site, for the right price with the best features. I’d research for hours making spreadsheets of all the top blog sites and the pro’s and con’s of each, only to freeze again when it came to deciding on the right one. Then I’d accept defeat and save it for “another time.” Well, then a lot of life happened, and here I am 5 years or so years later, finally sitting down to craft my first post. I’m finally telling my anxiety and fears to Fu*k off so that I can get out of my own way.
I had never really thought about starting a blog until I met my accounting professor in college. She wrote a personal blog that I started reading at the time and I remember sitting in awe as I read many of her posts. I’d think wow, she’s really putting it all out there and being vulnerable, not even knowing who will be reading it. I felt envious of her courage to be so raw and unedited in her writing to the world. I felt that I could never allow myself to let go of my deepest thoughts enough to share them with anyone, much less thousands of internet strangers. But her spirit and soul-baring work ignited a spark in me. I wanted to create something similar, to share my poetry and writing, much of which had never been read by anyone but me. I eventually reached out to her after I had graduated, about what site she blogged on and told her that I had been thinking about starting my own blog. Despite her wonderful encouragement and advice, it wouldn’t be until now that I would act on my ideas and finally dive into my own blog (i.e. this post you are currently reading). This professor and her truly unedited soul-sharing (if you are reading this… I finally did it) was one of my main sources of inspiration for creating this blog. So to her I want to say, thank you for being a friend to someone you hardly knew who was a student in one of your classes, and thank you for sharing so much of your soul in your writing. It inspired me to do the same, and I hope you enjoy reading my writing (if you choose to) as I have enjoyed reading yours over the years.
So here we are on June 30, 2024 and I’m finally doing it. My goal is for this blog to serve as a place where I can finally share my writing, explore my creativity, and push myself as a writer. I mainly write poetry currently, and I have a backlogged collection of never before read pieces that I’m finally ready to put into the world for others to read, enjoy (hopefully), and relate to. My poetry is raw, real emotion put to paper, written from my own life experiences of love, loss, grief and from the depths of my own depression and despair. I turn my deepest most personal feelings during some of the most tumultuous moments in my life into an expression that allows me to process my emotions. Many of my poems are written when I am in highly emotional states, and I let the words flow straight from my soul onto the page (or notes app of my phone, whichever happens to be closer at hand). This allows me to release and let go of some of what I am feeling and turn it into a tangible work of what I’d consider to be art. I’m not sure how much context I will give to my poetry as most, if not all of it, has deeply personal ties to events in my life that the others involved may not want to be aired. Nevertheless, I think the beauty of
poetry is that the reader doesn’t necessarily require context to be able to connect with the words they are reading. In my experience of poetry, the reader can almost feel what the writer is feeling by doing nothing more than reading their words. Poetry can also be a source of relatability and comfort when life throws you for a loop. It’s a written record that you are not alone in your sorrows, anxiety and even your joys. All of us, as humans, are interconnected on some level. For me, poetry has always made me feel this human connection more than almost any other form of writing. I think maybe that’s why I gravitate towards it so much as a form of emotional expression and release. My hope is that you dear reader, will feel the same.
I plan to produce many other types of content outside of poetry on this blog as well. I’d love to explore writing more traditional blog-style pieces mostly centered around outdoor content and my experiences and stories in that realm, and adding in some of my own photography. That being said, I don’t want to limit myself to one specific niche. Almost any article titled “What Should I Write About on My Blog” preaches having a niche and sticking to it. While this does make a lot of sense if you are trying to market your work for monetization, at this point in time, that’s not really something I’m looking to do. So, you’ll be getting a mix of a little bit of everything from poetry, creative writing, outdoor stories and articles, and anything else that I think I’d like to write about. This blog is about me sharing, expressing, and writing what I want on my own terms. I hope you’ll come along for the ride! Happy reading my friends.
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I have so much respect for you and your writings. You are an inspiration to me. Thank you for sharing. Your future is brilliant like the sun. Love you.