My Introduction

Blogging makes me nervous. The idea is that everyone would hopefully read what I write. But if you think about it, it's like having a serious conversation with someone where you both remember exactly what was said. Any stupid thing you say is right there, in writing, forever. People "benefit" from forgetfulness sometimes. A conversation with someone gone wrong is never remembered in full, and if you're quick and prideful enough you can twist words in your favor to cover up something really dumb you might have said. We're likely all guilty of this. I am. 

But I digress. Blogging makes me nervous. I'm planning to start blogging, but I don't want stupid things I say scattered across the internet. I have the ability to edit my post before and after publishing, so I've got that much going for me. No one is interrupting me in the middle of my sentence either so my thoughts won't be derailed. Those both are very large positives to blogging if you've got something beneficial to say. But what about what I'm writing about--my words? I'm perfectly capable of saying something stupid without anyone's help. 

My hope as I begin to write my thoughts down in the future and share them with you all is that I keep myself honest, mature, teachable, and wise. To do this I have thought up a small checklist before clicking that infamous 'Publish' button. 

First and foremost, did anything I write go against my morale or ethical beliefs? If No, continue. Otherwise, I likely need to completely scrap the thought and rethink my position.

Secondly, would I feel comfortable with my wife reading what I've written? If Yes, continue. Otherwise, I likely need to adjust how I'm saying things and what the topic is. This one shouldn't be a problem for me as I am hoping my wife will edit my posts before I publish them to keep me straight and lessen the grammatical errors I'm so prone to creating. 

Third (this one should be obvious), Would I want my younger siblings and family to read what I've written? This is a really big one to me. It can be super easy to forget who your audience is. My audience expands to more than the people around me. My co-workers and friends do not make up my entire audience. They're just in the front row. My family and the people they closely associate with are in the crowd as well. If I think my family doesn't talk about me to their friends I'm having a bad memory day. Aside from that, my family is what supports me from birth until death. They are the ones that are most likely to be with me the longest. I'll have a lot of opportunities to teach and influence them, just as much as they'll teach and influence me.

Last, but definitely not least--In ten years will I be embarrassed about what I've written? When I'm fumbling around the internet looking at things from my past and stumble on this blog, will I get red in the face and frantically try to remember my password so I can log in and delete the account? If the answer is No, and I feel like what I've written will be of use to someone, it is probably safe to press the "Publish" button.

So that's what I'm going to do now. I'm going to press publish. I hope some of you reading this will comment with your thoughts or additions to my checklist. Everything I'll be writing in the future is for you, so it won't go to waste. My goal with this blog is simply to join our experiences. I'd like to encourage you to create your own blog, and follow these guidelines. You don't have to be great at spelling or good with grammar (though it will certainly help). Share your experiences. Don't just go to one or two people and give them a quick story. If you read, hear, see or do something that impacts you share it with us. It's our experiences that define who we are and help us grow... so why not expand that growth to others? No one has all the answers, but we all have some of them.