One Year Later

One Year Later

One year ago I sat down and decided to start a blog. I debated names with my mom and sister for hours that day and still didn't settle until after I hit "publish." Now Scribbling in the Margins finds itself closing in on the first 100 subscribers and 63rd post. I haven't spent as much time blogging as I hoped when I started it. School took up a lot of my time and I struggled to develop new and creative post ideas once a week. I became really discouraged with my lack of progress and motivation. I wanted to push myself to be creative again and write for fun. Yet I wasn't able to keep up.

All that changes now. Scribbling in the Margins is going to look very different in the next couple weeks. I'm moving blogging platforms, completely redesigning the site, and rebranding. I like my blog fine as is, but I'm ready to make it look a bit more serious and a bit more me. I want to create something I'm excited to work on everyday.

It's still a blog about writing and books. But it's going to be more personal and more reflective on my young adult life. As of tomorrow, when the Class of 2015 walks across the stage, I will be a senior in college. A lot of changes are coming and I want to be able to blog about them, before and after.

I'm hoping to have everything up and running before June, but May is a busy month and I make no promises. If anything starts to look weird or posts don't show up, please let me know. I'm hoping this will be a smooth transition, but a part of why I'm doing it now is I have little to lose and time to learn.

Thank you for everyone who's been reading Scribbling in the Margins in its first year! I hope you'll continue to enjoy it as I make these changes. I look forward to hearing what you think and seeing where this next year takes us.

name

What I Read: The Opposite of Loneliness

3/5 pineapples

Marina Keegan intrigued me.

From the start, I noticed her in a bright yellow coat looking at me every time my friends and I found ourselves in Barnes & Noble (which is often). Finally, I opened the cover. When I found out she died just after her college graduation, I set the book back on the shelf and walked away.

At some point, Marina ended up on my Goodreads "to-read" list but I didn't think much of it until this semester. The semester of three classes, free time, and low motivation meant reading more. I gravitated towards nonfiction and short essays, easy to pick up after longer periods of time. Marina caught my eye once again. This time I obliged.

The Opposite of Loneliness documents a college writer's potential. Marina's fiction is a little weak in some places and the stories aren't as well done as, say, George Saunders. Frequently her writing reminded me of what I come across in some of my writing workshops. That talented kid, who always comes up with something the professor loves, sometimes too big for his or her own good--that's Marina. She has so much potential, and it's clear that with more training and time she could have really been a writer. A good one. (A paid one.)

The beauty of her book is not, then, in the quality of the writing. It's in the story behind the essays and the person who wrote them. Young people have something to say, something that I feel is too often ignored by adults. Yes, the writing might not have the experience to be extraordinary. But it's still valuable and useful. Marina's nonfiction, my favorite part of the book, really says something. In each essay I can feel her passion for her words. She cares about these topics. And she wants others to know. So what if the language is a bit rough in places; Marina knew how to get people's attention.

Marina inspired me and my writing. Every time I put her book down I wanted to write something of my own, something worthwhile and helpful. I wrote this article for the school newspaper and a post for our admission blog (not yet published), both inspired by her writing. Marina's inspiration is what makes this book worth reading. Her passion and her story are what make it good.

While I'm not nearly as talented as Marina, nor as recognized, I hope I can follow her example and create a lasting impact with my writing. While it may only be a ripple and not a splash, that's more than enough for me.

---

Below the Line:

• I had my very last class of junior year today. Two plays and a paper from now, I'll be a senior. Now there's a scary thought.
• Trying to live up these last few weeks with my senior friends has been lots of fun (Cardinal's game! Weeknights at the Duck (the on-campus bar)! Stargazing at 4:30am!) but as graduation looms closer it's harder to keep the sad thoughts at bay.
• However, I am very excited for this summer. I love spending time with my family and I love Indy. Plus I have two great internships I'm really looking forward to!
• I'm trying a new style for my photos. What do you think?

The Quarterly Update

Back in January, I wrote down my five goals for 2015. I thought today I would revisit how I'm doing so far on those goals and what I need to do to keep moving:

1. Prepare for a job in 2016. I've made progress in this, simply by realizing I don't have to have a job after college. I could do a long-term paid internship, volunteer for a year, work at Disney. I like the idea of not jumping straight into a job after college, but there's still research that needs to be done.
2. Read 50 books. Not doing so great on this one. I've only read 9 books out of the 13 I should be at. I know I'll catch up some over the summer, but I need to pick up the pace. Part of it is my lack of interest in books for some reason, but that's a discussion for another post.
3. Waste less time on the Internet. Cough cough... I'm failing at this. I've got to get better. Any tips?
4. Consistently post on the blog. LOL we all know how this is going. Again, I haven't been reading much and therefore don't know what to say a lot of the time. I'm in a slump kids, a slump so bad that when I sat down to write about it a couple of days ago I couldn't think of anything good to say.
5. Run 5 miles. I've been making progress on this goal. I'm up to 2.5 miles right now. I was really excited, because I thought my goal was a 5K, not 5 miles. But if I can make it to a smooth 5K by the end of the summer, I think I can be near if not at 5 miles by December. We'll see!

So, two out of five are going well. That's something! I really need to get on my reading game; hopefully the other two will follow after that :)

How are your New Years resolutions coming along? Any advice for me?

---

Below the Line:

• If you want to keep up with my writings elsewhere on the Internet, check out my professional Twitter @lesausser. I tweet every time something I write shows up somewhere on the web!
• Less than four weeks of school left. Terrifying, exciting, and incredibly sad. All at the same time.