Oh look, it’s a blog! Hello blog, how are you doing? I’m doing great, thanks for not asking because you’re a blog and can’t do that unless I tell you to.

When I first got to Paris I was required to blog twice a week as part of my program. In spite of the fact that I had just moved across the world and therefore should have felt overwhelmed by the wealth of blog-worthy stories, I struggled with that in the beginning. However, I had to do it, and so I did. Eventually it became a lot easier. I didn’t need to head off to London or Budapest to find something to write about; my favorite posts from that semester are about impostor syndrome and tripping on my way to class.

Meanwhile, later that year, Snark Squad/Childhood Trauma was struggling a bit because I didn’t think I had the time to read so many random kids books. That was my claim. This, mind you, was before we broadened our snarking horizons. Maybe things would have been different then if watching 90’s television in lieu of paper-writing had been an option. Paper writing won out over Ann M. Martin, but Joss Whedon would have put up a much better fight.

Saying that you don’t have the time to do things is a silly cop out. It’s almost never a question having the time. We choose how to allocate our time, and the problem is making the time. It’s not as if people with hobbies have somehow tapped into the fountain of free time. It’s just past the money tree and the mega delicious zero calorie chocolate farm!

I have been trying to be more conscious about the ways that I spend my time. Even so, there are still countless ways that I could reallocate it. There are a lot of things that I want to be doing, but I am not. Likewise, there are plenty of things that I am doing that I don’t actually care about.

I’m doing some personal housekeeping. I don’t have an actual house to keep, so this is the only kind I can really do. (But I totally cleaned stuff today! Best pull-out-couch-dweller ever, right? I bet you want me to move into your living room too. I am accepting applications.) Thing one is reorganizing these time-keeping/spending priorities. For all the talk of the importance of fiscal budgeting, this seems equally as important to me. (But I sleep on beds that stow-away in the morning, so what do I know?)

I’m still deciding which things must go and which things I absolutely must make room for, but this blog is definitely on the second list. (Expediting thesis progress also makes the second list, but more on that another day. Soon, in fact.) It contributes tremendously to my happiness. I hate writing about things that are sad because it feels like publicly whining, and knowing that I have to write two or three times a week makes me a lot more aware of the good things that are happening. Or, at the very least, learning to see the humorous lining to a shitty day cloud.

This isn’t a “HEY GUYS I’M GOING TO POST SO MANY THINGS NOW!!!1” post. (1) 97.4% of the time, that’s an empty promise. Totally legitimate statistic. (2) Nobody but me actually cares; I have no delusions about that. Instead, this is, like most of this blog, a personal declaration. I’m choosing to reassess my priorities, and bump this way up the list from where it has been.

I’ve heard that the best way to start is to, you know, start. You type some stuff, and then you hit that publish button.