The text conversation between my sister and I yesterday:

Me - Maybe I should start a blog. 
Whitney - I think that's obvious.  Do it today. 
Me - How would I start it? 
Whitney - I think you shouldn't think about it too much and just do it. 

But then I couldn't stop reading Rachel Kushner's Flamethrowers, so I postponed it until today.  Here it is. 

I have a kind of debilitating fear of anyone outside of a classroom setting actually reading things I write.  I am aware of the irony of this predicament.  And maybe this can be another step in the direction of overcoming it.  

I'm a few weeks behind, but I don't think it's too late for the traditional "New Year's Reflection" post.  2013 was a strange one.  A year ago I was at home in a pretty low place.  My plans to move to Boston had fallen through.  I'd sent out grad school applications to a shameful number of programs, in 2 different subjects, and I felt stuck waiting for something to happen, with no idea what to do next.  But after several stagnant months, I miraculously got into my top choice program.  I got my first teaching job, as a teaching assistant for Duke's Talent Identification Program.  I spent the summer in Athens, GA.  I missed Rome and Segovia.  I went to Boston and visited college friends.  I missed Providence.  I missed Brown.  I drove to Manhattan with my mom and moved into my first apartment.  I started my MFA for nonfiction writing at Columbia.  I went to 2 friends' weddings and got to be a groomswoman.  I got a job as a college counselor for GED students, and I volunteered as a creative writing teacher at a NYC high school.  I made new friends and had some dinner parties.  I turned 24.  I flew on 16 planes, spent a month of nights in hotels and other people's houses, 2 months in a University of Georgia dorm, and 100 days in my apartment, and lived in 3 different states.  I read 70 books.  I obsessively documented all of it so I can give you these numbers now.  

And now I'm a quarter finished with grad school, and starting my second semester classes tomorrow.  Maybe we'll get lucky, and I'll figure out how to make this look more appealing before I post anything again.