I Like To Write

October 8, 2002

I like to write. I've always enjoyed it. My dad was an English teacher. He used to quote things at the dinner table and make me look things up in the dictionary. I had him as a teacher once when I was about 15 or 16. It was a creative writing class. At one point, the class wrote poetry. Trust me, being a 15-year-old boy writing poetry that your father is going to read and grade isn’t easy. But he knew I was sensitive about it, and he handled it well.

A while ago, I got an email from a girl who said she loved getting my messages, but that she felt bad because when she wasn't working, all she ever wanted to do was sleep. She rarely wrote back, but said, "Please don't let my bad example keep you from writing."

I didn't.

But her replies became shorter and fewer until they faded away to nothing at all. Eventually, I became too self-conscious to continue. Never hearing a single word back can make you feel silly. Maybe that’s why I decided to start this blog.. Writing for writing’s sake, without burdening a girl who just wants to sleep.

My friend Pauline, whom I met when I sublet her apartment in Amsterdam last summer, says that blogs are for self-absorbed Americans. She’s a reporter for a Dutch newspaper, currently living in Ivorie Coast, covering the current unrest there. She has dinners with dignitaries and mercenaries. I’m sure, if she were ever to blog, it would be a lot more fascinating than anything you’ll find here. Yet, here we are.

In any case, it’s my birthday. What better day to start a new project?