Well, here I am, coming out of hiding. If you know me at all, you know that I just spent four years in college, working and creating constantly. I completed a triple major (something I don’t regret but definitely now think was insane of me to attempt), performed in over 150 shows and events, released eight original records, and all-around just killed myself to achieve a 4.0. I’ve never been great at doing things daily. Examples include writing in my journal (something I’ve attempted to do daily for years and years; my longest streak didn’t even break two weeks), reading my Bible, practicing piano/voice, writing poetry, eating breakfast, etc...This isn’t because I don’t appreciate structure, but because college, though no doubt the best four years of my life, completely wrecked my sleep schedule, drained my emotional and creative energy, and was all-around exhausting. Anyways, I spent my last semester preparing for and performing my senior voice recital, engineering two other artists’ albums, completing a 33-track and 167-page honors thesis, and recording and mixing my senior audio project. And I haven’t written a song in over six months.
Now I’m living in Nashville. I’ve now lived exactly one week in my own little house with one of my fellow singer-songwriter roommates. I’ve cleaned my kitchen every day (a shocking fact) and not hated it (again, shocking). I’ve done my dishes every day. I’ve made my bed every day (okay, that’s a lie, I didn’t make it today). I’ve put up my own shelves and learned how to drill anchors into the wall. I’ve eaten three meals a day. And I think that maybe, I can try another one of those daily activities in the form of keeping up my blog.
It’s hard for me to admit that I haven’t written in that long. I’ve seen it as shameful, and seen myself as a failure. However, I’ve recently been reminded that I’ve just been draining myself of creativity in so many other ways in the last six months, and in the last four years. So, while I struggle with the insane writer’s block that’s currently in my head, I’m going to take baby steps in the right direction. My mom gave me a box of those magnetic poetry kits for my birthday. (If you haven’t seen those, check them out and get a set for your fridge. Hours of entertainment.) Unfortunately, she gifted me with the happiness-themed one, and seeing the words “tickle,” “magical,” and “giggle” on my wall was a little painful to me. However, my goal is to overcome my dislike of happy words, and write a magnet poem every day for as long as I can keep it up. This will let me write a little every day while also providing me with an already-created word bank. Some of these might be long and deep, some might be three lines and stupid (gotta love a good old haiku), but either way, I think it’s going to be an interesting experiment!
All this to say, I’m hoping to be writing and posting more, and for now, I’m gonna experiment with some fridge magnetic poetry that hopefully you can enjoy along with me. See you tomorrow for poem #1.
Much love,
Mandy