I'm beginning this blog (my 2nd attempt) as part of a course requirement for a graduate course I am taking at the University of Alaska, Anchorage entitled "Evolution of the Essay." As a English graduate student, you would think that I have no fear of placing my thoughts and words anywhere yet I find myself hesitant to expose myself to the eyes of so many 'unknowns' out there in cyberspace.
Yet, it is the genre of the essay that challenges me to free myself of this fear and tackle a world foreign to my very being. At some point in his life the father of the essay, Montaigne, had to have decided that exposing his innermost thoughts to a world beyond the scope of his immediate friends and family was a worthwhile endeavor. I would love to say that all authors have some incredible level of self-esteem to be able to put their pen to paper and then, to put those permanent pieces of themselves on display for all to see. However, being a fan of the likes of Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, I know that many authors are "tortured souls" who seem to find their writings cathartic in some way. So, as I jump into this pool of unknown depths, I will hold fast to some of those writers who I admire and allow my mind to wander at its leisure in the hopes that my mental wanderings will come to some fruition, bearing some seeds of wisdom or at least, food for thought.
Join me as I begin this journey and let us see where our minds will meander.
