It Starts

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING FIRST BLOG ENTRY IS LONG but SUBSEQUENT BLOG ENTRIES WILL BE IN MUCH MORE MANAGEABLE BITES! :)

Hello there,

To any kind reader who happens across this account of one young person's journey to find herself--I welcome you. Yikes, it's probably not a good idea to start out a blog with a cliche. On the other hand actually finding yourself and somewhat succeeding is not so cliche so I'll let it stand.

For a little clarification I do not actually live in a treehouse although that would be awesome! I live on the third floor of an apartment complex. But there are many trees right outside my balcony. I could also do with a few more windows because I only have the balcony, and the window in my room window for natural lighting. Not so long ago I had a momentary lapse of judgement and wondered if I could buy the apartment, knock out one of the walls and put a window in it's place. Then my sanity came back. Moving would be a better way to go if my craving for views ever became too much. :)

Anywho, here is an annotated account of my adult history. I went to college at the University of Texas in Austin. I enjoyed my degree very much. It was in screenwriting/film. Then I graduated, took a trip to Ireland for a summer, came back, worked as an obituary writer for three months, quit, then came to Austin to work for a computer software company. I've been at it for two years.

Don't get me wrong I am grateful to have my job but it's hard because it's very tedious. And sitting in front of a computer all day will make you want to...well let's just say I understand that movie Office Space. So if I'm being honest I've spent the last two years being a little depressed. Sometimes a lot depressed. Apparently this thing is pretty common. You get out of school and have all these adults telling you that life is over, it will suck and then you die. College days were the best years of your life and if you didn't enjoy them to the fullest that was just too bad. Not too happy prospects there. Wow, makes me want to live. Blah...

So I've spent the last two years trying to figure out how to do this crazy thing called life. I've had a lot of hit and misses. There were lost opportunities. Some regrets. Not anything too irreversible mind you but I feel like I've wasted a lot of time. I kept asking myself. What do I do now? This can't be it. This just can't be how life goes. All those jaded adults have to have it wrong. Right? But I certainly wasn't proving them wrong. I'd go to work, hope and pray I wouldn't go absolutely mad before the weekend, weekend came, ended too fast and then it started all over again. Uck! This was not good.

Ok but enough doom and gloom.

I finally started this blog (due to a family member's nudge) because for the first time since that point I've started having fun. And I think it shows. I stopped saving all my hard earned money that I kept squirreling away in order to escape somewhere. Thankfully I dodged that bullet and didn't move somewhere just to find I'd brought my old boring self along with me. Instead I've started doing things that are fun and learning about things that are truly and utterly me.

Ok, now don't worry. I'm going to try and not make these blog posts about all about me. No one wants this to turn into a giant twitter fest. What I really want to do is write about all the things I've been discovering. Because gentle reader, the world is full of amazing things to discover. Even if you can't have them all, or they don't bring you wealth, power or fame, enjoying them will lift your spirits out of the mire. At least that's what they've done for me. And I want to share that with you.

The following posts will mostly be about my discovery of my love for all things, Victorian, Neo-Victorian, Steampunk, Gothic and Art Nouveau. If you like any of these things then I can't wait to show you all that I've learned and found out about. And even if you don't like them you'll be surprised how much these historical trends have ebbed into our modern day world and enriched them.

For me, I always knew I liked this stuff but I couldn't put a name or face or time period to any of it. But now that I can it's like finding a cave in the recesses of my mind, taking a candle in there, lighting up and finding a treasure as vast as the one they found in the first Mummy movie. Only it's better because no one can steal it. Once you find out what you love and appreciate that your interests have immense value it's hard to find a more satisfying feeling.

Anyway, because this post is so long and if you've read through it you deserve a break. For a reward I am posting a link for Daily Squee. Daily Squee has nothing to do with what I'll be writing about but everyone should be exposed to some form of a cute furry animal at least once a day.

http://dailysquee.com

It's on the website: http://www.icanhazcheezburger.com which also has many fun and funny things to look and laugh at.

Seriously folks go check it out. To not be crushed by the seriousness of life we need to laugh, enjoy ourselves, stop carting around this cool grimness that seems to have become so fashionable. (I don't mean having fun at the expense of other's of course and believe me you can go overboard.) But the adults are right, life is short. And so we must make the most of our moments so we won't be missing out on all sorts of wonders!