The Story In Me

I love to talk. I mean REALLY love to talk. If you spend more then 10 minutes with me you will probably be dizzy from the constant babble that exits my mouth.

I have always been this way. Just ask my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson. At the first Parent/Teacher Conference of the year she politely told my mother that I was the “most sociable child” she had ever met.

In other words… I wouldn’t shut up.

Forward almost 34 years later and I am still the same. Good conversation is just something I love….but I am not always good at it. Let me explain…..

Have you ever seen one of those videos where they film a city street and speed up the film really quick?

That is exactly what the inside of my head is like. A thousand thoughts and ideas speeding along, all trying to get to the lead. My thoughts become so jammed and jumbled that sometimes I sound like a blubbering idiot trying to convey what I am feeling.

However, writing has always been my out.  Give me a paper and pen, and I can convey to you exactly how I feel  express every thought within me. For countless years, I have kept journal after journal, writing out all my ideas, emotions, dilemmas, desires, burdens, jokes, and general babble.

Last year, with the prodding of some friends, I began this Blog. “Why not allow others to hear you?” they said.

“What could other people possible get from reading what I write?” I replied back.

Nevertheless, I started Life With Jess. At first I was just writing every now and then. Then I moved on to once a week, then twice a week, and now I pretty much write every day. The release I feel when the words pour out of me is totally euphoric.  It is like I am FINALLY getting out what is caged inside of me.

When I began Blogging I thought perhaps it would be family and friends who would follow me and read what I wrote. They did….for the first couple of Blog Posts, and then they stopped. I would write and……

Nothing.

Nada.

No readers.

Except my mother, and she is totally obligated to read everything I post, well, because she’s my mom and that’s what they do.

The very folks who encouraged me to write, stopped reading. I would write and watch the statistics page to see if the counter would go up when someone read what I wrote.  It was a very discouraging time.

But I didn’t quit, and I kept writing.

And writing….

And writing.

And then.. people started reading. People I didn’t even know. People from all over the world.

Then they started to comment back on what I wrote and giving me feed back and encouragement.

Overnight, I suddenly had friends all over the place, Greece, India, Oklahoma, California, China, London.  And they didn’t mind all the words. In fact, they read each one, and LOVED them.  They would laugh with me, and extend hugs from across the miles when I was having a bad day.

Some of these new friends have similar interest, and some are as different from me as night is day. But we all have a deep Connection ,a common need, an end goal…

To tell the story that is inside us.

Eleven months and some 200 followers later, I love connecting with my Blogging community each day. It is amazing how much you learn from folks you have never met, never talked to physically, but have spent countless hours drawn into their deepest thoughts.

William Faulkner said it best:

“If a story is in  you, it has got to come out.”

Thank to those who take the time each day to read a little bit of my story. It thrills my heart to know that it is being told and maybe bringing a little sunshine.

And THANK YOU for sharing your stories. In this dark and sometimes depressing world it is nice to find a group of kindred spirits to travel this journey with.