Opening Post

Well, I’m going to be quite honest; I’m not sure what to write about. In fact, I probably never would have started this blog had it not been for my friend Jo(e), whose own page, http://writingasjoe.blogspot.com/, has inspired me in more ways than one, and who encouraged me to commit my thoughts to paper.

Now, I keep a person journal that I would like to write in daily but in practice am only able to contribute to about two or three times a week. That being said, my great fear is that I will empty out the contents of my mind onto a computer screen, find that experience satisfying (typing is so much easier than scribbling things out longhand), and then be too lazy to record anything in my own diary later on.

The solution I have devised is that, rather than airing my beliefs and observations here and then undertaking the boring and laborious task of retelling them once again at night, I will confide in my journal first and simply transfer those musings onto the Internet afterward.
The problem is where to start. I’ve been journaling for quite some time, and I’m young enough that going back too far would take you into the reaches of my very childhood, which would, at least the very early parts of it, probably be excessively uninteresting to read about from the perspective of the person actually living it.

I’m debating how young is too young, and how much I should post in a given week. I guess what makes the most sense is to provide one month’s worth of journal entries per week, likely starting around 2002 or 2004.

That would really give me the motivation I need to finish typing those up (nothing like a deadline!) while keeping the pace of things acceptably swift for my readers (assuming, of course, that I’ll have any).

Well, we’re now in April of 2008, which means that if I start in January of 2002, I’ll have enough for seventy-two weeks, or slightly more than a year. After that, I’d just have to post current entries as soon as possible after completing them.

Yes, I think that’s how I’ll do it. Every Monday will be a Journal Entry Day, and for the rest of the week I’ll comment on things going on in the here and now.
I suppose that I should tell you a bit about myself.

Unfortunately for the more curious of you out there, I will not reveal my name or location, unless by some marvel of investigative prowess someone is able to figure out exactly who I am and e-mails me with my real name.

My pseudonym is Blackened Boy, for reasons that will later become apparent, and so I guess that you can call me BB. I am nineteen years old, and currently a college student at a major university in the American South, where I’m studying Government and International Politics. I imagine that after graduation (which is yet some years away for me), I’ll probably be a journalist, but would like eventually to become a lawyer.

My parents, David and Marie (not actual names), also live here in Southern State, along with my three siblings: Powell (aged 18), Thomas (aged 12), and Pie (my sister, aged 4). They are about an hour and a half away from my university’s campus, where they live in Mountain Town, a rural and isolated community remarkably cut-off from the extremely affluent area immediately to its east.

We are not originally from there, nor are we even from this part of the country; our Native State, where many of our extended family members still reside, is located, depending on your definition, in either the South or the Northeast. We left Native State when I was sixteen year old, took up residence in Deep South State, and then headed north for Southern State, where we have been ever since.

During our first few months in Southern State, we lived in Wealthy Town, a well-heeled locality nestled in one of the richest counties in the country. We moved to Mountain Town slightly more than two years ago, and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.

A few notes: I was raised by my father and step-mother, who got together with my father when I was three years old and who has served as our caretaker since that time. My brother Powell and I regard her as our full and true parent, and, whenever my birth-mother is mentioned, she will be called Anne.

You will, of course, read about all of this through the Journal Section of the blog, and you can follow the journey as I did, seeing what came before and, eventually, what’s coming ahead.
I do not yet own a digital camera, but will be receiving one for my (uncomfortably close) upcoming birthday, and so will add pictures as soon as possible. I’m counting on my friend Jo(e) to teach me how to navigate the intricacies of Flickr, which, as things stand now, I would be completely incapable of operating.

It is now nearly mid-April, and here at Major University classes are getting ready to let out. Between procuring housing for next year, studying away that I might pass my finals, and working on the awful backlog of homework I’ve foolishly allowed to pile up, I may be at first pressed for time to write.

This summer, though, once courses at Major University have concluded, I will be able to contribute a bit more freely.

I have to go now, though, as there’s much to do!

I’ll post the first entry for the Journals Section today.

Thank you!