I think we can all agree that 2016 was not the best of years. It was tumultuous to say the least, and I fully admit to putting off this project for most of the year. The inspiration simply wasn’t there. It didn’t exist in me, it didn’t exist in my world.

But we’re into a brand new year, and I’m not about to let 2016 have an encore performance. Nothing changes if nothing changes, right?

So here we are. Welcome to pinksemicolons.com, or I suppose welcome back to some of you. About six months ago, I decided to pursue this with a more dedicated and convicted focus, and I’ve spent the last few months doing back-end changes as I had the time. But I got stuck on what the first blog post should be. I got stuck in general, let’s be honest.

And the biggest hangup? Fear. I’ve been terrified of making the leap back onto the page and especially a page that is an extension of myself. This is me. This is my work, and this is where I plan on spending time in 2017. But I had a hard time getting started. Every time I opened up a new page on my computer or flipped to a new page in my Moleskin, I stopped. The idea was there, but I couldn’t get it out. (I know this isn’t new for me, but I’ve wondered if all creatives don’t struggle with this.)

“What if nobody reads your work? What if you say the wrong thing? Oh, my god, what if you just never write again?” shouted the voice in my head. She’s got power, that voice, and the fear grew steadily for weeks until I was utterly terrorized of following through with my plan. I seriously considered packing things in before I even set up shop.

But then my heart piped up: “So what?”

The words came at about 2:37 a.m. on an arbitrary night of not sleeping, and with that smallest of whispers, I started to calm down. So what, I thought. I might as well take a risk and see what happens instead of wondering what if. I only have one life to live and I want to write. I need to write. And it’s about time I stop denying that part of myself because, let’s face it, this world needs more full humans.

So, here it is. The result of putting the fear aside for a few minutes, just long enough to see what might be on the other side of it.

I look forward to adding more to this page and expanding it as I go, and I look forward to sharing it with all of you.

Thanks for being here.
-kw.