Most people today use Instagram or, God forbid, Facebook as a written record of their life. No. Not me. Instagram is where I keep up with everyone else’s life, posting usually only on stories for some reason. Facebook is where I join groups, keep up with people I’ll never see in person again, and post only when I have a baby, celebrate a major holiday, or am tagged in someone else’s wedding photos.
I have this thing, instead, called a Blog. It is a literal written and pictorial record of my adult life. I started it at age 24. It has followed me through seven states and eight houses. Also, four deployments, six teaching jobs, two children, and 13 years of marriage.
It’s not going anywhere.
There’s something about it that just makes it hard to write, though. Maybe, being 13 years in, I have certain expectations and it’s gotten more frivolous over the years. It’s not nearly as heartfelt as it once was and I’m hopeful that maybe I can tackle the deeper topics here. My blog has become more about pictures and weekly happenings than it has Big Picture items. I want to go back to the panned-out version of what I probably set out to do way back in 2010.
The name Kristin Writes 2 is coming from, literally, “I can write too”, not just maintain a blog or social media profile (neither of which are actually popular, but hey), but it’s hard to put it all out there if you already have a brand of sorts.
Brand in the loosest possible sense of the word.
I am toying with the idea of linking this substack to my blog but never my blog from my substack. I still want people to read me and find me. Have you noticed there is no Good Way to read blogs in 2023? You have to link them from Instagram, or you must get them directly to your email. Bloglovin’ has glitched itself out of existence. I never was a Feedly fan. The days of reading directly in Blogger were the good old days and we seriously had no idea. Now I rely on bookmarks to just stop by my favorites once a week or so if they aren’t coming to my Gmail.
In this case, I am planning to post once a week. Maybe more? No promises either way. We’ll see where it takes me. I’ve considered doing this for months now but have been hesitant to open up another tab in my browser; basically if I have less than 12 tabs open, I’m having a productive one over here. My running rate on tabs is usually 12-15 at a time. (If you think that’s bad, you should see the clutter on my desktop screen.)