Setting up shop...

Hello fellow friends and bloggers,

After reading a comrades' blog postings recently I have realized that it is worthwhile - if not absolutely necessary - to have a space in which one can express their thoughts. Thus I made myself a gmail account, joined Blogger and immediately afterwards had a complete fallout with my creative self. Of course I would - it is always when you are gung-ho to do something you think is worthwhile that you have a complete mental fog and cannot think of anything to say, to write, to feel...

Go figure.

As a point of fact, I  considered creating a journal, however I came to the conclusion that my penmanship is seriously lacking, and there is always the problem of never actually revealing your thoughts to anyone - except maybe posthumusly, which defeats the purpose of actually sharing thoughts and emotions with another physical being...

Thus this blog was created! I have to admit now that my friend Jmart is solely to thank for my graceful faceplant into the blogging sphere. We have been discussing on and off the life of a post-grad going back to their small town origins and having no idea as to where one belongs in this great big world we live in. Moreover, we are mourning the fact that the communities we forged while in London are no longer surrounding us - we miss the sense of belonging shared with the peers and profs who became our extended family, our home away from home. We miss the love, the support, the tears, the smiles, the laughs, the relationships and the knowledge we gained from this extended family.

I miss it more and more knowing that September is almost finished yet I still feel like I should be returning to school...returning to the forest city where I initially found a bigger part of my identity.

Instead I find myself, like so many others, floundering in the "big bad world" trying to find a stable foothold. So far I am managing to do just that. Which brings me to the reason why I jumped at the chance to join the online community - another community. I love returning home; I love the friends I have here - many I have known since kindergarten. We have wonderful relationships. But...(there is always a "but" *insert dramatic sigh*) you can only share so much of yourself. Eventually, the excitement of being back with "the besties" wears off, and eventually they will tire of hearing how much you miss school and all the people you met and things you learned. They have had the same experience, or haven't yet had the experience of leaving this small town you live in to go pursue something bigger. It leaves you bereft, and in even more longing for the communities you left behind when you graduated and returned to the homestead.

This is not what readers of "So far around the bend..." will continue to hear of. My point is that I needed a space to talk about the things that not all my hometown friends can identify with or care to hear of. This blog has been created in hopes of meeting new people, even if I may never see your faces, who can share similar experiences, ideas, emotions, etc. It has been created so that I can share my voice (so to speak) and have a place to vent my thoughts.

Maybe these postings will never be read by anyone. Maybe you have come across this page and do not desire to do so again. Maybe you think you have something in common with my ramblings and will continue to tune in and see what happens next.

Regardless, I am happy to be here. Talking. Thinking. Sharing.

My name is Lib.
I am a woman, a friend, a daughter and granddaughter, a feminist, a geek, a nerd, a liberal.

Pleased to meet you!