Inner Self Blog Challenge: Transparency

I was so inspired by a blog challenge sparked up by Jess Constable's brave post, "Things I'm Afraid to Tell You." Fifty participants introduced by Creature Comforts took on the challenge of true honesty and transparency, which makes me sound redundant, but in the blog world, no matter how controversial or personal bloggers can get, there is still, quoting Creature Comforts, a "vast cavern between true reality and the presentation of 'reality' on blogs."

That being said, I'd like to try and take on that challenge and hopefully make the world of blogging a more honest and open place in this crazy world of the interwebz...

Things I'm Afraid to Tell You

• I may be the most well-rounded, lost person in the world. Before I realized that the academe was my calling, I lived my entire professional life jumping from one type of job to the next, from human resources to copy writing to marketing and even teaching English as a second language. After that five-year stint of confusion, I jumped into yet another world and worked on becoming a nurse, then a doctor, then a physician's assistant, then an acupuncturist.
• I'm still not sure, even when I feel like I'm at my most certain when it comes to career choices. It scares me, sometimes, that maybe I'm not cut out to be a teacher either. It scares me because I don't know what else to do other than to work in a classroom, and who else to be other than to be a teacher.
• I'm scared of gaining weight. I always come off as someone who couldn't care less about her appearance, and someone who is also highly critical of media's standards on weight. But in truth, I have a fear of breaking that standard myself.
• I have no place to be highly critical of other people's writing, but I do it anyway. I whine about bad grammar when I stumble many times myself. I complain about non-originality when I know for sure people couldn't care less for most of my posts. And the hypocrisy goes on...
• I enjoyed the Twilight series, and I'm passing on my book set to my future kids because I know they would enjoy it, too. No matter how truly badly written it was.
• I want kids, and I want to have them soon.

I'm sure I have more to say, but I want to keep this first post short and not too overwhelming. That being said, I hope that whoever takes on this challenge -- and I am challenging all my fellow bloggers to do the same -- would not only make this whole transparency thing a one-time thing on our blogs, but a potential habit. I find that vulnerability makes this whole business of blogging, not just a business, but a meaningful endeavor for both yourself as a writer, and for your readers as well.