Well, here I am again. What’s this – nine months since my last post? Here’s how the decline went: I started wiriting about my short stop in Aruba from my 2023 cruise, didn’t like how it was going, took a *break* and now I’m here! I don’t know how authors do it, I got stumped on a 4 minute blog post, and decided to take a nine month break. Now imagine how long it would take me to write an entire BOOK. Anyway, safe to say lots has happened in that time. I finished my first year of university and have since started my ssecond one, I coached a full season of competitive gymnastics, and lived life in general. What’s this post about? I’m not entirely sure, so read through and see if you can come up with an answer.

If I’m being entirely honest, part of me didn’t think I’d write another blog post here. I kept saying “yeah, someday” without actually giving myself a start date, or even just a “thinking” date, to at least plan to put words down. So amidst saying that to myself, another voice was saying “get real Eden, there’s no point.” Except, there is some point – I enjoy writing, and hearing myself through what I write. I also enjoy hitting the publish button, makes something feel pretty official. I also hope to eventually write content that others read because they have interest in that topic, and not just because I posted about it on my socials and provided a quick link (not saying that some people don’t enjoy reading what I write). I guess we could call that one of my *many* aspirations for myself.

If not now, then when?

Maybe a quote recited too often, but really, it works for this (I also didn’t have a fitting picture, so quote it is).

So why am I here, sitting on my back porch, typing out this post? Well, in one of my classes this semester, my professor asked us to fill out a forum online, introducing ourselves to the class. One of the prompts included what we do in our spare time that keeps us busy. Among other things, I said I enjoy writing, and though I don’t post very often, I do have a blog. Then came the thought, “well if I’m going to say I have a blog, I should probably check to see what it actually currently looks like.” So naturally, I type Thinking With Eden into my search bar, and am then reminded that my last post was about Puerto Rico, and I wrote that when we still had three feet of snow here. With that observation, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least start on something. And as per usual, once I’ve started writing, I have to keep going, or else I’ll take another exceptionally long break.

After writing that last paragraph, maybe I’ll title this blog something around the topic of getting into old-good habits, or maybe something about not being afraid to do things because of what others may think. This isn’t an academic paper, I’m not being marked, rather I’m doing this out of sheer will and enjoyment, so I may as well write how I want to. I have to tell myself that if people want to read, they will, and if they don’t like it, they won’t. It’s not for everyone, and that’s totally okay. I need to remember to write for myself, and not what I think will please the wide variety of people that I know and communicate with. I do enjoy writing; there are lots of things I want to write about, it’s just figuring out how to put those thoughts into text that stops me. That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Hopefully I’ll have another post out a little quicker than the last.