Honestly

It has obviously been a while since I last blogged. Most of the time people go on a blog hiatus because they are really busy and just don't have time. That is not the case for me. I have had time, and plenty of it. Another reason most people quit blogging for a while is because they just don't have anything to blog about. That also is not an issue. I have plenty of things bouncing around in my brain to post on. The reason I haven't blogged is simply because I don't know what I believe about so many things and I A. don't want to blog on my thoughts and feelings at the moment only to look back and regret doing so and B. I often feel I just don't have enough information.

I've also been thinking about my intellectual and spiritual journey. I've come from a conservative back ground and have steadily journeyed leftward. What I don't want to be is a pendulum, and I think, on this blog at least, I have come across that way. I don't want to be a liberal fundy anymore than I want to be a conservative fundy. What I believe to be true, what I think makes the most sense, however, tends to always fall on the left rather than the right. It's just the way it is. I don't only listen, watch and read liberal sources of information. I go out of my way, like listen to Glenn Beck, to get a broad range of opinion. I read columnists like Robert Samuelson and David Brooks-- not liberal guys! -- and often agree with them on certain issues. Yet, at the end of the day, liberals often make the most sense and represent the most moral point of view.

What I've come to realize is that the only thing I can offer on my blog is my honesty. What I write represents how I view the world, and as long as I am listening to all sides and doing my best to make sense of them, then that's all I can do. If I'm wrong then that's o.k. If I mostly agree with one political view then that's o.k. as well. I can only offer an intellectually honest point of view with the information I am given. So that's what I'm trying to do, not offer a liberal or progressive point of view, just mine.

Done!

It's hard to believe that I started blogging almost three years ago. I started doing this as I began my pre-requisite classes for my BSW. I felt that I was beginning a new chapter of my life. I had recently finished a second degree for something I was less than passionate about and only for the purpose of making more money. All along, while I was getting that degree, I was planning on going back to school simply to study what I loved whether I made money from it or not. I was excited to take a college history course, sociology classes and economics. I started blogging at that time to improve my communication skills, and learn to better articulate my thoughts. Yesterday, as I finished the internship I began in August, that chapter of my life closed.

In the past five months I've had some wonderful and challenging experiences. I've experienced moments of great hope for humanity, as well as, increasing cynicism. And blogging has been a significant factor in this experience. For all the times people have knock blogging, I truly believe it's helped me along in this journey. I know that I wrote better papers in a shorter amount of time because I blog. I know that as I worked with patients over the last six months I was able to communicate with them better because I blogged. So now that I'm done with my internship, maybe I'll do it more.