During my teenage years blogging (via such incredible sites as deadjournal, livejournal, and xanga among others) was a central part of my daily routine. But the older I get, the more afraid to post anything truly personal I became.
Jennifer Knapp, in what I consider her "coming out" album, wrote, "Careful what you say / Careful who might hear / Someone else inside the universe could write it down / And you'll be hearing it for years." That's the fear with which I've lived every day, particularly since I began coming farther and farther out of the closet. Because I work in education (collegiate mind you), I always have a twinge of concern anytime I post anything even remotely controversial on any site.
Here I plan on working to develop my courage at posting my personal ideas, because at least here I have the safety of a certain level of anonymity. (Pen names can be very troublesome sometimes, but they can also be quite liberating.) We will see what comes of this experiment in returning to blogging.
Amalie:
I was sexually abused for a year at age eleven into twelve.........right then is the first time I've honestly indicated my age of the time because the adult ME thinks the 11-12 ME should have been strong enough to TELL someone or make it stop by my own power...............I write that it happened at !) because my adult ME thinks a ten year old is weak, vulnerable, .... but I have told you the truth....the first time to be honest................ You ask the path to....telling truth...............For me, it comes to my words to others or to the page as written ONLY after I have written AROUND it, little by little, fiction long before nonfiction..........until right this minute, I never told the correct age... In my portfolio are various stories about the year of the assault, the RAPE, though 'they' never call 'raping a child "rape" even in the laws. The first item I wrote about it was "Touched to Tears for Years".............The rapist was my wonderful grandfather's younger brother who lived with him and grandmother all their years. I never told as an adult because I knew my grandmother would have 'punished herself blaming herself for what he did"........but the afternoon after I spoke at her funeral, I told my mother, all the aunts, the cousins........................and today, I still feel 'I'm Sorry Little Girls, So Sorry" which I wrote about the guilt I feel about all of his other victims until his death when I was 30, which was the year I told my husband about it.........he then told me the minister of his church assaulted him as a child............ SAD stories. If you want some 'input for what you write, let me know because I KNOW.
Just 30!!! Oh so YOUNG. If only I could have the last 46 years to live over............I'd start writing at 60; and would have made sure I held a single job long enough to draw a good retirement. As it was I worked for 4 school districts in different states, several nonprofit organizations including 2 hospitals; then got 10 working for State of Idaho. Had a great professional career; but wish that State of Idaho was for much longer than ten years. I still wonder what kind of writing career I could have, might have, hoped for if I had started at YOUR YOUNG age. Enjoy the age that you are for you can never be that age again!!! That's the chant I put into my 3 kids heads then in the heads of 7 grandchildren. ANN
Just 30!!! Oh so YOUNG. If only I could have the last 46 years to live over............I'd start writing at 60; and would have made sure I held a single job long enough to draw a good retirement. As it was I worked for 4 school districts in different states, several nonprofit organizations including 2 hospitals; then got 10 working for State of Idaho. Had a great professional career; but wish that State of Idaho was for much longer than ten years. I still wonder what kind of writing career I could have, might have, hoped for if I had started at YOUR YOUNG age. Enjoy the age that you are for you can never be that age again!!! That's the chant I put into my 3 kids heads then in the heads of 7 grandchildren. ANN
From college onward since 1960 I've said "I'm going to write a book................" Instead, I taught Creative Writing a year, then spent decades fundraising and writing Grants..............finally at WDC I started writing; have 12 books published at createspace.com at Amazon. If I could live my life over, I would have started writing as a career in 1960!! Better late than never. ANN
Where in Oklahoma? I lived in Garvin County, Paoli, until age 13. Ours was the only family who moved away; the rest stayed in the county while their kids, our cousins, thought we were the luckiest ones. That was 1951. Molly and I can now decide when to get married but our focus is now on her 91 year old mother who lives in Seattle while we are in Portland, Oregon. It looks we won't marry until after Mom's gone; my choice is to be married yesterday but I think Molly is afraid she could be disowned per the Will if we did...................She didn't let them know she was lesbian until her last partner/wife died and then they kept trying to convert her back to what they thought she always was. Her mom is fine with me; I was able to win them over because Molly was active alcoholic when we met; they worried and seldom saw her because of it; when I first met them, I encouraged them that she would quit; we visited them ofter, even just 2 hours at a time so they told me, "Thank you for bringing our daughter back to us." So I won them over. Yes, she's been clean and sober since 2005!! ann
Aw, what a nice entry and what a lovely family! This made me think of the cats I used to have -- I miss them so much. I definitely consider my dog a member of my family. We got her when she was 5 weeks old and now she's nearly 14 years. Pets are very special.
Excellent message. I too have suffered clinical depression; I know I was depressed at age 8 because I remember lying under my bed, banging my head, wishing I could die; Finally found medication in 1975 and have made sure I have a psychiatrist to call. What's really bad is VERY FEW psychiatrists will take Medicare patients; When mine went to California 4 months ago, I called every source within 50 miles.........nobody..........until a message I left on phone while crying and begging to be accepted just happened to be answered by the female psychiatrist; now I have a doctor again and am thankful.
Wonderful to read this which you wrote. ANN
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