Escaping the Pigeonhole

Today my class received a visit from blogger Craig McClain, who maintains the Deep Sea News blog. It was great to talk to someone who has no problem with being goofy, who recognizes that marine science is inherently awesome and who uses the world of the blog to communicate it on that "oh wow!" level. And who is walking proof that people with Ph. D.'s can be have tattoos and work as club bouncers on the side.

Of course a few things came out of our discussion that gave me food for thought on trying to start my own blog. The first being just to go for it and get it out there...so here I am. A general rule of thumb that Craig shared was to have a theme, an overall gist to the blog that people can grab onto. Fair enough. Yet as passionate and excited as I am about wanting to be a window into the world of the marine biology grad student, I'm realizing that's perhaps not my goal of this particular site.

As someone who has always had so many interests, wanting to be involved with everything and still wanting to live every one else's life vicariously, I'm realizing that the intense focus on a single subject (albeit the many diverse sides of that subject) which is an inherent part of the marine lab environment has been one of the biggest adjustments I've faced this semester. I love the ocean and science, and I want to dedicated to them, just not defined by them.

The only guideline I can really think of for myself at this point is to not have a guideline about what to write or not write. So perhaps the title of this blog is rather misleading, as I probably will not write just about fish, or even mostly about fish. I really want a blog to showcase all the cool research that I'm surrounded by...but that will hopefully be something more polished in the future, and possibly collaborative with other people at my lab. This is most definitely the practice leading up to that - training wheels still on here.

You know that whole saying "Dance like nobody's watching," etc. My whole attitude going into this thing is "Write like nobody's reading." (Which is completely true at the moment - ha!) And it seems counterintuitive really for someone who deeply wants to reach people through writing...but eventually is the key word. Just like Anne Lamont advises writers to mentally kill off their parents, teachers and any other potential creative roadblocks, I will keep quiet about my little corner of cyberspace while I keep tuning my instruments, splashing up different colors of paint, and doing a bit of mumbling to myself, just trying to figure out what works.

Of course, I really do hope to produce something reader-worthy through all this, and thereby attract actual readers! So should you an actual reader be, please pardon the shakiness while I find my voice. If you have the patience for it, we'll see what happens when my latest reads and cooking experiemnts, passion for produce and flowers, and dabbles with Buddhism and experiences of multiculturalism all come bubbling up in the mix - with, of course, fish.