I’ll be the first to admit, I’m awful at introductions. I struggle with them as much online, I feel, as i do in real-life, because I’ve been trying to do this for years, and I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten much better at it. Those awkward first words just always seem stilted, and forced, and not really myself at all.

Be that as it may, it’s kind of necessary, because you don’t really know me yet and I’m not the sort of person to just plop down in front of you and start talking, either. So, yeah…

Hi, I love words. Funny, considering how bad I am at putting them together verbally. And how abysmal I am at a lot of word games… but that’s beside the point. I love reading and writing… and a lot of other stuff too (music, holidays, vintage cookbooks, insert-geeky-show-or-movie-here) but my go-to favorite thing is always going to to be a good story.

It’s what keeps me sane.

This isn’t news to me. I’ve known this I was a kid when, even if I was feeling awkward or I said the wrong thing, I could retreat to the handy emergency paperback I kept stowed in my backpack. And then later, when I started putting my own words onto the page – the ones I could never say out loud- letting my characters and poems say them for me.

Words are my lifeline.

And then I became a teacher.

The thing is, teaching will literally consume you if you let it. There’s always something to do, and if you’re not doing it then there’s the sense that you’re not enough, that you’re failing. Ugh. Teacher guilt.

I think you can guess what happened.

A couple of months into the first semester I found myself ready to break, because, since the start of the school year, I hadn’t written anything. I hadn’t picked up a single book that my students weren’t reading. The amount of jealousy I felt while my they were journaling was maddening. And I thought… what in the heck am I doing to myself?

So yeah, this blog was born. Because hopefully this will make sure I try to maintain my mental health. In truth, I have no idea what it’ll actually end up looking like. I have some ideas- books, obviously, as well as some other stuff (none of which have anything to do with teaching) but I’m kind of looking forward to just seeing where it goes. Letting the journey take me where it will. You’re free to come along if you’d like. The company would be nice.