Ages and ages ago, way back in October of 2009,
Havi at The Fluent Self wrote about how
a person doesn't necessarily have to be all that interesting -- all that kooky -- to be successful.
She had four points to this effect, which I have paraphrased slightly so as not to
copy-paste her entire post:
Point One: You don't have to be kooky and weird.
Point Two: The important thing is being yourself, and doing so out loud.
Point Three: You can't be boring, because there's no such thing as a boring person.
Point Four: That means even if you are boring, your boringness makes you interesting! You can work with that!
Cool, right? Great advice, at least in theory.
So, um... what about in practice?
Well, to start off, I think we can all agree that I'm not really kooky. Weird, sure, maybe, but certainly not
kooky. And even my weird is pretty run-of-the-mill weird.
So, being myself, out loud. I guess that's what this blog is about. But like any other persona, this one covers things up. Not necessarily anything I'm ashamed of, mind you, but things that might make the blog
not safe for work, or that might embarrass the people I care about, or that might make job hunting difficult even though they have nothing to do with the jobs I'm looking for. And the kooky, interesting people online tend to not really care about those boundaries, that much, or at least they appear to be willing to throw caution to the wind. If your blog is your living, then sure, you probably should do that; it'll get you readers, right? But if it's not? If it's more of a hobby? Well, maybe watching your back isn't the worst idea in the world. It just might not be the best marketing for your hobby.
No one's boring? Sure, I guess. I sort of want to counter that
everyone is probably boring to someone. And that's a
duck, right? If people find you boring, they're not
your people.
That doesn't make it any easier to find people who find you interesting, though, does it?
So, then, how can I make this boringness interesting? I guess, at heart, that's what the whole point of this blog has always been. And those of you reading this are probably well aware that there's not that many of you, and that most of you probably know me in real life. To be honest, I would not be at all shocked if a substantial percentage of you know each other in real life (although, given the numbers we're working with, if
any two of you know each other, that would be a not-insubstantial percentage).
All of which would be a great draw if I was a teeny-tiny
social networking site, but while I encourage you all to come out of the woodwork and say hello to each other in the comments, that's not really the point of this blog.
The point is to figure out what's interesting about my life, and tell you some stories. Plenty of people do it.
Hey, maybe when you're coming out of the woodwork, you can tell me what makes
you a little kooky? I'm all up in my trees, here, and I could use a nice view of the forest.
Cover via AmazonSo let's check in my list of 28 Things to Do Before I'm 28 since the last time I checked in.
