I really enjoy Twitter. I understand the people who think that it's stupid or pointless and that the 140 character messages are a waste of internet space, but I've found it to be a fun way to engage with other users, whether it's actually having a conversation with them or just hearing what they have to say. It's interesting. You never really know what's going to happen when you send out a tweet (or retweet).
For example I recently started following the Twitter account of the Asian American Journalists' Association J Camp program. I was fortunate enough to participate in the program back in 2007 with 40ish other high school students, and I had a great time meeting new people and learning from professional journalists from all over. Over the past couple days they had tweeted at me and other alums asking what some of our favorite J Camp memories were as well as tweeting at incoming J Campers. It was fun tweeting back and forth with old friends, sharing memories as well as to the students about to go to J Camp (perhaps the one time I can tweet at high school girls without feeling creepy) welcoming them to the family. Thinking back on that week brought back a lot of memories. There were a lot of pretty impressive people, from our leaders, advisors, and guest speakers who all had successful careers at various establishments (CNN, ABC, Washington Post) as well as the other students. I haven't kept in touch that much, but I remember a good number of them being pretty smart and driven, and a quick perusal of Facebook (yay stalking) revealed that some of them are indeed in some pretty sweet positions in their journalism career.
Ironically enough, J Camp actually ended up pointing me away from journalism. A lot of the professionals I met mentioned that it wasn't that important to study it in school but that the main focus was just gaining writing experience. That was kind of the first step, but ultimately I think not going down that path was a good decision. I don't think that I have that passion or drive that the best journalists need as they pursue a scoop or tenaciously edit down a piece minutes before deadline.
But back then, I really loved to write. I wasn't (and still am not) the best verbal communicator and putting words on a page gave me an alternative way to communicate my thoughts and opinions. But somewhere along the line, it kind of just fell off. Maybe I got too self-conscious about what I was writing and scared that people would disagree or just flat out not like it. Maybe I got caught up in perfection. A lot of the times when I talk or write I am still thinking of what I want to say as I am saying it. It's actually pretty frustrating and leads to some pretty stupid, confusing things sometimes and maybe I was too afraid that things wouldn't come out just how I wanted to.
As I thought about J Camp, I remembered what made me want to go in the first place. The opportunity to get to know someone through an interview -- and then sharing that with everyone else. The thrill of filling an empty page with informative, entertaining, or just plan fun words. The feeling of accomplishment when you've taken an article that was too long and editing it until it says exactly what you want it to say and no more.
Looking at the tweets of the upcoming J Campers, I can tell they feel the same way. The ALL CAPS and exclamation points make it pretty evident (although maybe they're just excited to meet guest speaker Hoda Kotb? I would be).
So I decided, screw it. I'm just going to write whatever I want when I want to. I'm not going to worry about getting it perfectly right or who might think I'm stupid or wrong (no one reads this anyway...). As I'm preparing to move and essentially start a new life, it makes sense (to me at least) to also re-kickstart this blog. And you know what, it's been a great long while since my last "I haven't written in a while but I'm committing to writing lots more" post, and I'll give myself about a week or two before the posts stop coming again. So here come the posts. Whether it ends up actually being just a week or two or a long term thing, who knows. But it's going to be random and it's going to be awkward and basically, it's going to be me.
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