I’m Olivia (though from the title, you should already have guessed that). I’m 26, I’m in college, and I’m taking a class titled Publishing. Publishing has asked that I start a blog/podcast/social media to begin sharing my creative process/genius/idiocy in public, where people can see it.
So this, the whole me-addressing-you thing, is for a class, yes, but the timing of this works well for another reason too, and that is: I graduate at the end of this year.
Bachelor’s degree, baby. It’s been a long time coming.
I took a break from academia in my early 20s. For four years (plus some, if you count high school and a few semesters of community college), I thought I didn’t know what I wanted.
So I traveled. Worked a few jobs. Had regularly occurring identity crises. Debated on continuing my high school graduation plans of opening a bakery. Got into gardening. Got pet ducks. Thought about writing that novel series that’s been on the back burner for a decade. Wrote the first book. Didn’t know how to continue. Briefly considered a degree in Library Science or Botany. Updated my childhood bedroom and filled it with houseplants.
Wondered, always, what I would do with my life.
And through all of the years, all of the questions and the hem-hawing—I was just avoiding the acknowledgement of something I already knew.
Because the truth is, I’ve always known what I wanted to do. Always. And maybe that seems like it’s easy to say in hindsight, but it’s true. The thing that stopped me is what stops all of us from anything:
fear.
What if I fail? What if I can’t really do it? What if I SUCK?!
But my four year hiatus from school taught me that I would rather fail and pick myself up again and again at the thing I want than at a dozen things I don’t want.
And that’s why I’m in school now, at 26, writing the first blog post of my proper adult life (if you turn up some Internet rocks, you’ll find a few other “Hello, Olivia Here” blog posts from before I was a ‘proper adult’).
This, the thing that I want: writing for an audience. Connecting with people. Understanding humanity and the world through stories I read, hear, and tell.
I’ve been wanting to wait to blog until I’m ready, until I’m a better writer, until I’ve plotted out the next several steps of my life.
Which is stupid. Because honestly? Who the hell is ever ready to face their fears? At some point, you gotta just go for it.
So, ready or not: here I am.
As I stretch my creative-abilities publicly, here’s what you should anticipate from this blog:
book reviews of stuff I love
personal essays
tidbits of my writing process
artwork
travel snippets
catchy blog subtitles calling readers “babes”
I know I said this is for a class, but it’s really for me too: I need to get comfortable sharing things about me, about writing, about art. Things that might not be perfect. Things that require deadlines, self-set or otherwise. And the only way to learn how to do that is: to do that.
Thanks for reading.
-omh