Who on earth would have guessed that this lean, mean oversized, sugar-challenged, belly-jiggling, body-dragging writing machine did not like to write at one point in his existence? Maybe no one who reads this blog, but them's the facts, folks. So what life-changing event could have possibly occurred that would have completely turned this guy's life upside down? I'll get to that eventually, and you will eventuallyer. I know I've mentioned this a few times over the course of writing this blog. But to date I have never devoted a post exclusively to this fact. So here goes...
Waaay back in the '70s when I was but a mere student in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), we received writing assignments from our teachers as did school kids since time began. No one was exempt. At that time, personal computers and printers didn't exist as they do now, so we had two choices: use a typewriter or write out assignments in longhand, no doubt using our finest cursive script. My own script was among the unfinest in the land, so I actually went back to printing around fifth grade. Strangely, none of my teachers ever said anything.
However, there was the occasional teacher who told us to write a XXX-word paper about some obscure historical event, and we were required to write it by hand no printing or typing allowed. Pure drudgery. And your essay had better not have had fewer than the required amount of words or your grade would suffer. Sometimes I couldn't write enough to fulfill the requirements because I couldn't think of enough or there just wasn't enough to write. So much stress and agony for something that doesn't matter anyway. Can you see why writing was far and below my least favorite thing to do in school?
Many years later, I read a book (the title escapes me) that was essentially the author's daily journal kept during his junior year of high school as an assignment in one of his classes. After reading this book, I thought, why don't I try to keep a journal for a year? For Christmas, I received one of those blank Hallmark books that were designed for just that purpose. My journal began on January 1, 1989. Each day, I recorded what I did, any dreams I had, my work day, and any other significant info like noteworthy things I did or places I went. It just so happens that in August of that year, we learned that we were expecting a child. When 1989 was over, I continued writing my own journal. The 1990 journal covered our move to a larger apartment (well, our family was growing), Diana's birth and first Christmas. Continuing the journal into 1991 was a no-brainer. Many noteworthy things were recorded over the years.
Eventually the journal was kept in Microsoft Word on a computer and kept going till 2006 when I went to Walt Disney World and then found myself in the hospital. By then, I was too sick to keep it going. I did miss updating it for awhile, but managed to put it out of my mind.
Or did I?
A few years later, I learned that one of my friends had her own blog. Terri gave me the website where her blog is based, so I looked it up and found out that it's a Google application, and free. I wasted no time in getting my own page, and all I had to do was...create my blog.
Eleven years later, I haven't looked back.
I don't know what I would do now if I had nowhere to write. In many ways it's been therapeutic. A few people have told me that this creation of mine brings a little joy into their lives. And I have some good fun writing it. As my last few posts have indicated, I'm not as well as I'd like to be. Such are the consequences of chronic diseases. All I can do is the best I can do. I'm 61 now. Let's see if I can still be doing this at 70 or even 80. Y'never know...
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