I Thought I Didn't Want To Do Blogging

I love the irony that my last post was all about how I had free time again and was promising to catch up on all my blog posting. Cue a full year of no blog posting.

I had somewhat of an internal struggle. I am a bit obsessive about things, and I felt it crucial to get down every interesting event that happened to me in vet school. Part of that is because this blog functions like a journal, and hey, I want to remember all this stuff that happened to me. Most of it is because I'm obsessive and don't like things getting left out.

The problem that arose from this is I developed a huge list of topics and stories to write about, backlogged by over a year. Funny lab stories from 3rd year when I was in the middle of 5th year. Things that happened in 4th year finals that had been just the other week when I put them on my list, and ended up four months down the road by the time I got to them. It was unpleasant to deal with. I got to resent it, and hated writing blog posts, because it meant slogging through months of backlogged ideas, and typing up a story I'd already grown bored with. So I figured, if I hate blogging so much, I shouldn't force myself to do it.

I also tried to rationalise this further. One of my main inspirations for starting the blog in the first place was so I'd have a place to write down funny or touching stories when I got out into practice. Quirky clients, weird cases, positive things I want to remember. Then I thought, well, what about client confidentiality? I live in a pretty rural area. Maybe I'd get in trouble with work, or with clients, or with the state, if someone figured out I typed up a story about them. Never mind that I read a slew of other veterinary blogs written by other veterinarians, who don't have a problem, because things are kept very vague.

Not to mention I spent several months living with my parents or my husband's parents, looking for work. No stories to be found there, really.

So. what happened? Well, as you do, I wandered back and started reading some of my old stories, after it came up in conversation. And I started thinking... hey, some of these are funny. I'm glad I wrote these down. I'd forgotten about this or that. Maybe it's worth keeping track of these things, after all.

Now there's the risk of me obsessively wanting to catalogue every unusual experience I've had over the past six months, but I'm going to make a new rule: write down stories as I think of them, with no regard to chronology, and with no pressure. That probably seems obvious to you, and I'm sure it's how actual effective bloggers operate, but my little OCD brain needs to be given permission to not write a blog like a freaking textbook.

Here's hoping for a future of consistent posting and interesting tales!