The pulsing cursor is nothing new. Something I see everyday at work and have at least known about since the behemoth desktop computer in my kitchen growing up; the one my dad used to type recipes and my sister and I used to play Tank Wars. What's new is the lack of urgency from that cursor today. Today it is undeniably summer, I am lucky enough to have nothing to do (well not nothing, there was walking the dog, a few downward dogs,  doctor's appointment and listening to Usher's "Climax" a good six times) and I have decided to write. Well not just write but really blog, which is a whole new thing for me, and one that does feel a bit cliche.


So here I am. 24 and writing without an assignment for the first time in my life. There doesn't need to be a thesis statement, five paragraphs, or a set rhyme scheme. And while this could easily happen in a marble composition book that I squirrel away in my junk drawer, it's not. It's happening here on the world wide web for mass consumption (or rejection). It's happening here and not in some marble composition book because it won't happen in  the book. I've tried that and those notebooks, unfortunately, atrophy in my junk drawer next to the owner's manual for my coffee maker and a pair or sunglasses missing a lens. I've never been disciplined about writing on my own unless there's an audience. Unless I know someone might see it and care about my writing it stays in my head. Which may also have something to do with my being 24 and undeniably of the Facebook generation for whom the notion of having an audience, even if it's only of our "friends," is completely natural. In fact, one feels the pull of said audience like a phantom limb. Which is why we're always letting everyone know when we've eaten some killer granola or had a great time (or rather taken a bunch of pictures of us having a great time). 


And I'm writing because it makes me feel good. It always has. Even when I was doing so because of some edict said by some history teacher or poetry professor from on high. And not a lot of other things make me feel good right now.