Hello Everyone!
It is September. I finished my 11-month volunteer program over a month ago, and now I’m not required to write any blogs. But throughout the past few weeks, I kept thinking about publishing more blogs now that my year of volunteer service is up. Walk with me through my decision on continuing my blog and what it will look like going forward.
View from the summit of Mount Pisgah
Who it is about?
The blog will still be primarily about me, but I hope that it will often be able to feature the many people that are part of my life.
Who is it for?
Everyone is welcome to read my blog, and it is posted publicly on my website for that reason.
Close friends and family will read the blog more often than others, therefore I will naturally be more inclined to write about topics that I know those people are interested in. I will touch on this again below.
Future Jeremy will use this public blog as a way to track the course of his life. (Even though I only watched one season of How I Met Your Mother a long time ago, an episode where Ted refers to his future self as "Future Ted" has always stuck with me.)
Why am I writing it?
Communication with Friends and Family
​My decision to accept the Homeward Bound job in Asheville means that I am living in a place that is very far from most of my friends and family. Although I have received much support for continuing to work in a job that I love in an exciting city, the biggest downside of life in Asheville is potentially losing touch with those who are important to me. Although I don't expect to ever fall out of contact with those people, living so far away is a natural obstacle to overcome. I recently discussed with a friend how much I enjoy catching the occasional update on their life even though we haven't seen each other or talked in years. I hope to provide a similar opportunity for those interested in my life updates.
The fact that you are reading this means that I care about sharing my life with you, and I would love for you to send me a text, Facebook message, email, etc. letting me know that you have read this. There isn't a single Facebook friend that I have that I wouldn't enjoy having a quick conversation with, even if we haven't talked in years. Please, interrupt yourself reading this right now to tell me that you are reading this! Let's catch up.
If you received the link to this blog from me directly, you are someone who I care about very much AND who I fear that my new living situation may negatively affect our communication with each other.
FACT: Everyone reading this fulfills the first part of the above statement.
Goal Tracking
I wish to also use this blog to track my overall life goals! Putting them in writing to a public audience will help me keep myself accountable! You'll know what they are and may ask me about them, which will help!
RISK: I don't actually achieve much of what I'm trying to do in life, and public embarrassment follows.
REWARD: I am held more accountable, am able to better track my progress, and continue to bet on myself being proactive enough to move forward in my life.
A Blog is an Appropriate Medium
Many of the social media sites that people use nowadays do not fit my communication style. I'm long-winded, like to explain everything to the last little detail, and discover exactly how I feel about something through the process of talking through it.
Keeping up my Writing Chops
One thing I actually have achieved in my life is graduating college with a degree that forced me to write a lot of long papers and develop writing skills. Since my everyday life does not consist of anything that challenges me in this way, I hope to continue to practice writing and not lose my writing literacy.
Scrap-booking
So my mom does this thing called scrap-booking that takes up the entire ping-pong table. While it is annoying that I can't play ping-pong when that is happening, I have always appreciated that it is a creative way of recording memories. If I can create a virtual scrap-book that doesn't take up ping-pong table space, it's the best of both wolds.
What will I be writing about?
I don't exactly know as of right now, and that's exciting! The main reason I didn't particularly enjoy writing a blog for YAV was because it was on the YAV website and there were expectations on what to write about. I don't want to limit what I write about so that way I'll be more likely to stumble upon a really good topic. If I find a theme that becomes particularly popular or interesting to myself, then I'll most likely run with it! Possible upcoming blog posts: My Labor Day weekend trip to Nashville, NFL kickoff, Survivor season 35 kickoff, favorite local business spotlight, my hobbies in Asheville, etc.
When and how often will I be writing?
My blog will not immediately have a recurring schedule. If you would like to be notified when I post a new blog, please let me know how you'd most like to receive a notification, and I'll put you down on the list! If you are my grandma and get a notification whenever I post to Facebook, you don't need to do that, you got it covered, grandma :)
So that's it! If you have any questions, please email me at jeremygliddenblog@gmail.com, or send them to me however we typically communicate with one another. Thank you so much for reading!
God Bless!
P.S. Just in case if I don't get an NFL blog written before season kickoff this Thursday, my Super Bowl 52 prediction:
