An Introduction

A person close to me told me I needed a hobby.

After the initial sting, I realized how true it was. Here I am, a year out from graduating college, and I've focused so much of my energy on schoolwork that I've lost a bit of myself in the process. I always assumed I was an interesting person, which incidentally made me a really boring person. Hobby-less, but also submissively unopinionated. So much so that I tended to let people walk all over me.

The fact of the matter is that I can't tell you my favorite breakfast food, never mind who I am as a human being. So after quelling the insecurity of my writing, of the embarrassment I may face in current (and future) events in my life, I've decided that the best way to cure a hobby-less, vapid trollwoman is to explore every freaking thing that comes to mind. I figure the best way to do this would be a blog.

I know I shouldn't start a blog on a negative note, but I'm well aware that my opinions don't matter. I'm not here to fight the man, I'm not here to be the next Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm just here to feel solid ground once and a while. Maybe this will become something, maybe it will fizzle out like other blogs I've attempted. I don't care. Who knows. Who cares. But I think the main theme I'm trying to get across is that this blog isn't directed toward anyone is particular. It won't be censored for anyone. It will just be a semblance of stories about me, which I will attempt to create some sort of entertaining prose about.

Since this is an introduction post, and I still don't have anything interesting to report, I guess I'll talk about the title of the blog, Ways of Seeing. The first thing about me is that I like taking pictures. I am a photographer, career-wise, but I think it's in my blood. After mulling over a few different title names, I decided just to steal the title of John Berger's book, Ways of Seeing. It's one of those books that your professors within your major suggest you read, but you never actually read. (Okay, so I've read a few chapters, and the old TV show has definitely kept my attention much longer than the book has.) And if I'm honest, the only reason I even thought about it was because I was cleaning my room today and I came across it.

But I totally think it's fitting, no? There are infinite ways to see something. Berger's book is contextualized in art and language, two topics I have become very much educated in while at college. But it's transcended into how I see the world, how I see life, relationships, time... everything. Maybe this blog is just one way of seeing, just one life and vantage point, but everyone has one. Perhaps it remarks about blogging in general, but there wasn't any restrictions on the name and goddamnit I thought it was was clever.

I'll leave it there before I get too stupidly philosophical. I've also decided that I'm going to incorporate photos into this blog as well. Photographs are basically essential to me now, and everyone likes visual representations. So, here we go: the beginning of a blog.