First Birthday!

image from weheartit

    Today's the day! Paper Thoughts is celebrating one year of life! To be honest, I had forgotten about this very important milestone in a blogger's life until about three days ago, so I don't have anything special planned. I do want to take a moment though to say thank you to everyone that has made this year so much better than I ever thought it could or would be.
    First up is Gill Harrison from Ink Paper Pen. Gill was the very first person to visit my blog and leave a comment, and I won't ever forget how encouraging that was, especially since I was still being a Secret Squirrel (as Gill likes to call it) about my writing. I had never showed anyone my writing besides my sister, so putting it out there and receiving a comment from a writer like Gill was major. Also, thanks to her blog I was able to have my first experience with a supportive writing community, and met lots of cool cats who helped my blog grow. Thank you Gill!!!!
    Next is the lovely people who keep Poets United alive. I didn't feel like a poet when I first joined this amazing community, but all the support and words of encouragement certainly make me think I am! Thank you so much for hosting a place for us to share our poems, and for all the work that you put into the daily posts that help us in our writing!!!
    And where would I be without my readers? A special thanks to Abin, Grace/Heaven, Mikhael, Mary, Sarah Mac who encouraged me in my early days, and last but not least Sherry. You all brighten my blogging days. Thanks a million for stopping by every week to read my work!!!
    This final thank you is for the two people outside the blogging world who had a hand in getting me to where I am today. A huge, huge thank you to my sister for making me learn how to write a proper five paragraph essay. Without that, I never would have made it into Mrs. Stanley's English 1 Advanced class. Before I go on to thank Mrs. Stanley, I also want to say thank you for the oodles of encouragement that only sisters know how to give! 
Ah, Mrs. Stanley. I remember the day I had to write a poem for her class, and consequently had to give my previous failure another go. If not for this assignment, I never would have pursued poetry. A huge thank you for always pushing me and believing that I could do better. Since then, English has been my favorite subject. I won't ever forget that class!
Thanks to everyone that has joined me on my writing journey! You all have made this year incredible!! Here is some delicious Batman (my hero!) birthday cake for you :D.

Being (Staying) Away aka Does This Count?

    It's been so long since I posted! I've been having a dry spell in which I tried to write but came up empty. While I sat at my desk squeezing the life out of words that wouldn't get along with each other I reached the big one-eight, which inevitably led to a gazillion dinner dates (comes with the territory of having a large family and indivdually going out with them to have an officially grown-up talk), moments in which I tried to make myself feel like an adult, panic attacks at my failure to do so, and trying to quit thinking I'm still a teenager (technically I am but you know what I mean). Did I mention I don't feel like an adult at all? Frankly that scares me because I feel as if I should go do something important. It's sad really. I hate to say it but I wish I could rewind to my thirteenth birthday. So, my wise advice to everybody is: Don't do what I did and realize too late that the time between 13 and 18 is a time to sow not reap.
    Regarding my dry spell, I keep telling myself, "I will participate in Write on Wednesday this week. I will!" And then I never do. Then I tell myself, "Saturday is coming, get a move on your OSI poem!." But Saturday comes and goes and no poem. I could go on and on about the things I meant to write that never became a reality but what's the point? Anyway, I edited some old stuff (ok maybe it was just one paragraph) that I hope counts as writing (it's part of the process no?), but other than that I wrote nothing new.This thing that comes on a whim isn't really writers' block. I've had that before and it's different. No, this is more like I-have-an-idea-and-a-billion-days-later-I-still-haven't-been-able-to-put-it-to-paper. It's a real disease, I swear.