Hello World, this is me!

The pressure of writing the first line of your first blog is quite overwhelming.  You want to be profound, quirky and interesting without sounding pretentious or cliched.  I'll just kick-start by saying that I am a 28-year-old Drama teacher.  However, I'm sure that sentence is not quite enough or quite sufficient for an introductory blog ... the blog that is meant to 'wow' the world.

So, I'll start by explaining why I decided to start blogging ...

Growing up in a small Eastern Cape town was not exactly the most inspirational experience for anyone who had even a hint of creativity within them.  So, in order to channel my energy, I wrote ... and I wrote and I wrote and I wrote.  However, when I got to university there were endless opportunities for artistic expression and I somehow managed to stop writing creatively.   I then started a Masters degree in Drama; ironically at the point in my life at which I should have been the most creative, I was sucked dry by cold academic writing.  This blog is thus an attempt to bring to life again the seed that was planted when I was at school.  Forgive me if it rambles ... it is a personal exercise in re-inspiring a love of writing again.

I also feel as if I am at a point in my life when reflection is neccessary.  I am at that age when my inner adventurer longs to pack up and go, but the emerging adult within is begging me to be sensible.  I feel as if my life is filled with paradoxes at the moment.  It is a time when I am realising that I have held onto the 'if you can dream it, you can achieve it' mantra just long enough to realise that it isn't neccessarily true.  However, I have also come to realise that sometimes the unexpected paths that life takes you on can be even more fulfilling and exciting.  It is a time when I am facing real disappointment, but I am also enjoying real excitement about what lies ahead.  It comes at a time when I am frustrated by what I hoped life would be by the time I was 28, but I am also excited by what it can still be because of the very fact that it is not what I had hoped it would be.  At the moment, life is a threshold.  It comes at a time when I have a salary, but not such a good one that I don't need to phone my mom to help me out when the steering rack on my car breaks; a time when I know exactly what I want my home to look like, but can't yet quite bring that vision into reality.  I think this is what they call the 'quater-life crisis'.  Mine just arrived three years late.  This is the time in which I can see, enjoy and appreciate what I do have, but I am also aware of the picture that is just over the horizon.  Most importantly, it is a time in which I am making sense of my faith and of my Creator.  I question, grapple and grow day by day.

I have also recently started crocheting.  I always loved crafts and grew up in a home where it was not unusual for my mom to arrive with all the equipment that was needed for us to do some or other artistic activity (this creative outlet was possibly what saved me from becomming an accountant!!!).  As a result of my journey into the world of yarn and needles, I have also discovered many other artistic outlets (thanks to my precious friends Jen and Zanmarie) and this blog will serve to journal these discoveries as well.

So, (to quote Austin Powers) - "this is me in a nutshell" and this is a space for me to grow in my ability to write, to grapple with life and to share any bits and pieces that inspire me.  Basically a creative mish-mash of what's going on in my mind and life at any given time.

I hope that you enjoy what is to come.