Write On

    I write all the time. As an English major, that isn't a surprise, but I write for myself, too. Even before I made the decision to write more seriously (to learn the craft), I wrote. Homework mostly, and in notebooks. I don't remember printing out an essay until middle school. When I first stared using computers in early middle school, it was mainly for silly games. Writing an essay on the computer was something I had to learn and do, not something I actively sought. I used the Internet some, but it was dial-up, and there is nothing more infuriating to an eleven year old than waiting ten minutes or more for a website to load.
    When the website finally did load, I browsed websites that were entirely and only about horses. I was a horse nut. I could only take a riding lesson once a week, and since I was stereotypically obsessed with all things equine, it was not enough. To satiate my thirst for everything horse, I looked up whatever I could about them on the Internet. While all my friends had Myspace accounts and had the latest gossip over IM, I didn't even dare go to the website since my parents told me it was dangerous. I never commented on articles, made accounts, or posted any sort of writing.
    Even when high school rolled around and I was an arrogant, loud, and overall nuisance as most freshmen are, I was extremely careful about what I put online. I got a Facebook account, a huge step for myself and my parents, who seemed convinced that I would be sucked into Hell through the homepage. It was such a huge step, in fact, I put a photo of my horse as my account picture instead of my face. The paranoia was very real.
    I became more confident, of course, seeing that I am quite active on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Goodreads, Youtube, and Wattpad. The only days I did not turn on my laptop this summer were during vacation, when family time was a requirement instead of a choice.
    I am not a huge voice on any social media, but I would like to be, especially in the huge online book community. I've wanted a blog all summer; I persuaded myself I didn't have time for one-- while I was numbly searching on Pinterest. The real reason was that I was-- and still am-- worried about making a mistake, revealing too much, or offending someone. It was one of my greatest nightmares in high school to get threats online or have the entire school body hate me because I forgot myself and ranted about the injustices of high school. The Internet is wonderful, but it'd be ignorant to say it was safe. It's not. The stories about kids killing themselves because of cyberbullying, online harassments that came to fruition off the Internet, and hacking provide substantial evidence that if you are online, you'd better think long and hard about what you're revealing on it and what you're willing to take from other people on it.
    That being said, I think I know what I want to write online. I think I know what will be just enough and what will be too little or too much. I'm not going to bare my soul, but I'm not going to hide from opportunities. I'm going to make mistakes, I accept that. I hope to God I don't make a huge mistake that will land me in online failure history. Even so, writing online is too large of my life to be a frightened mouse. I know I can't spend more than a couple days off the Internet, and I won't try to change that. So, I'll just write on. Whether it be a book review on Goodreads, a Tweet, a poem on Wattpad, or a comment on Facebook, I'll write on.