Introducing Myself

Picture from Pixaby

Dear Fellow Steemians,

How is it that the human spirit can find the ability to distill its essence into just a few words of introduction? What is it that makes some introductory posts engaging until the end where as others seem to drone on until the back arrow on your browser is begging you to click it, looking for another introduction that is more...intimate. We can drone on and on and on about the details of our lives, and at some point the reader will give up reading, because the truth is they have enough details in their own lives to sift through. Details don't often tell much about us.

For example, I can say I have six kids (and yes, that is true) but what should you assume to know about the person I am because of that information? You may wonder if I am a Catholic or Mormon, and when I reply "No." What are you left with? Well that is interesting, but why??? Why would you have six kids? I know that is the question most people who meet me are dying to ask me, but don't. Because the answer might be to personal, to intimate, it may reveal more about me than I wish to tell. But since this is not a conversation, I can pretend you did have the guts to ask the question and give my sincerest reply. I had six kids because I wanted to, because it seemed like a great thing to do with my life, because I verge a little on the wild side, and because I have a lot of guts. (Although I admit I get scared by odd things, like putting up a blog post, writing this is a lot scarier than having six kids.) And I love it. I have fun every day and I am exhausted, usually by 2pm. Of course, it is also hard, as are most things worth doing.

Other than saying how many kids I have, proclaiming that my husband is the best in the world (because no one wants to admit their husbands are only human on the public face of the internet), and going on about how I love my dog and cat and coffee and chocolate...all of which are true....but who cares? And who doesn't love all those things?

Truth is I am a research nut. Give me a room and books and I will die happy. But sometimes I get the itch for the high of active production (the production of six kids has not satisfied that itch) and when I leave the hazy dream world of vast amounts of consumptive reading (which is what I do with the vast amounts of spare time a person with six kids has on hand) the only thing I really want is a keyboard or a pen and to let the stream of words fall out.

Whether or not anyone else will like to read these words is yet to be seen. Truth be told, my biggest fear about starting a blog and every post I publish is not failure. It is that I will be read, I will be liked, I will be shared, and people will KNOW me. So, I write with relish and post with terror.

Thus, starts the paradox of why I am doing it, even though it terrifies me, and every day I wake up and want to delete my blog, and I am compelled to waste a bit of energy slapping my own hand away from erasing my words from the world. (I have in the past burned over 1800 original poems, handwritten, only copy...that was a fun night!)

So here I am. I am a poet and a writer because I cannot stop. I write about homeschooling, child development, neuroscience, and the history of education. I have written homeschool history and science curriculum for schoolhouseteachers.com and have two articles coming out in future issues of The Old Schoolhouse magazine. I also write poetry and am curious about the potential to earn money for poetry on Steemit, as there are not many venues that pay for poetry. My blog can be found at www.jumpintogenius.com

Now that was a lot jibber-jabber and you probably already hit the back button, but if you are still here, perhaps you would like to vote and follow.

That's Me,
Marla