I credit the beginning of this blog to Mr. Eric Stoller (ericstoller.com) whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the ICEF-AIRC Reception in NAFSA.  While I’ve always loved writing, I’ve always been hesitant to begin a blog due to various preconceptions that I had previously had regarding the practice of blogging, tweeting, and livejournal-ing.

I felt that doing such things were cries for attention – ways to say “Look at me, look at me!  Care about what I had for breakfast today,” or “Give me validation on how great my writing is/my art is/my opinion is,” or “Let me say all the nasty things that I think I can get away with because I’m writing them anonymously/using a web moniker.”

In addition to these preconceptions, I also felt that the more I write publicly, the more people would realize how limited my intelligence is. I actually had a good conversation with some friends about this topic recently. One of them, ironically a young lady of 23, said, “I think people are just getting dumber every single year.”   I remember quickly disagreeing with her, saying instead, “I don’t think people are getting any more stupid than they were in the past.  However, people are just more willing to broadcast their stupidity.”

As they say in Proverbs:

“Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” (Proverbs 17:28)

With people being willing to share every single thought with others and the internet facilitating the speed and ease in which these thoughts are disseminated, it just makes it all the more painfully obvious that a lot of us, while perhaps not inherently stupid, are prone to saying many things that make us look stupid.

So what was it that Eric said that changed my mind?  Well, after he found out that I had always aspired to be an author, he encouraged me to start writing in a public forum.  When I resisted, he said two things that really resonated with me. The first was, “You’ll be surprised how little people care about what you have to say,” and the second was, “Do it because it’s your personal passion.  It’s your art.”

He couldn’t have said truer words and so begins my own personal little adventure in self-expression.  While I’m really only writing this blog for me, Eric, if you’re out there reading this as you told me you would, I just want to say: “Look, I’ve kept my promise,” and “Thanks.”