I Can Do Anything According To My Mother And The Fortune Cookie

Sometimes I feel that my gluteus maximus is glued to this same spot and there is no hope of ever standing again. The black computer chair is very comfortable with all the “fancy” features. It offers great lumbar support and has adjustable arms, a seat height adjuster and the back of the chair can slant as far back as I want it to go. The fabric is breathable too, so my legs never stick to it no matter how long I occupy the same position.

About two years ago I started blogging. I did not know anything about:

• Google Following
• Facebook Likes
• Twitter Followers who tweet 24/7
• The etiquette of commenting
• Sponsor ads
• Easy money with Swagbucks
• HTML
• Adsense
• StumbleUpon
• Forums
• Communities, nor did I have my own Community
• Navigation Menus, not just one, but two
• Headers
• Sidebars
• Footers
• How to make a favicon
• And a million other blogging things that all eventually led to getting people to follow my blog

It was all new just like the day I stepped into my first grade classroom. An older woman stood at the front of a very quiet room filled with children. This woman, I discovered quickly, was my teacher and she directed me to a very weird looking chair. “Did I have to sit in this very hard chair long?” I wondered.

Little did I know that I would be glued to that that wood-bottom chair for many hours. My bony gluteus maximus did not enjoy that chair much. It had a bar that always got in my way, would tip over if I leaned over too far to see inside the shelf located under the seat and it smelled very much like…metal. Maybe it was old or more likely, I was quite prissy.

For twelve years I sat in uncomfortable chairs at school, wiggling this way and that to minimize the physical discomfort long enough to learn. Education was and is my passion. I do not think I have ever actually formulated that into a sentence before…Usually I say, “I love learning” or “I soak up information like a sponge,” but the real core truth is that “Education is my passion.”

That sounds so wonderful as it rolls off my tongue.

“Education is my passion.”

Being educated and learning new things is extremely exciting. Not exciting like, “Oh neat,” but as thrilling as riding the fastest roller coaster, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon or skydiving for the very first time. Many people find my thinking and thrill at the simplest new thing a bit baffling, but my thirst for knowledge is unquenchable.

When I started blogging, there was a whole new world of information before my eyes. With a few keystrokes, I was able to read blog after blog after blog after blog, all the while learning, learning, learning, learning and being entertained.

All that takes me back to first grade again. Before I stepped onto the school bus that sunny first day, my mother said the same encouraging words I had already heard a million times, “You are special and can do anything you want to do.”

Those words have reverberated in my head for nearly fifty years. (Yikes! Am I nearly that old? Hmmm, that must be why I feel free enough to strip for mangoes.)

“You are special and can do anything you want to do,” are powerful words if they are incorporated in every cell of your body and believed with every ounce of passion you can muster.

As I hopped from blog to blog at the beginning of my blogging experience, I was ignorant. Can I just interject that I can not stand being ignorant. In this undesirable state, I started learning about what makes blogging enjoyable and how to use my skills to effectively share my life experiences and knowledge.

It was very bumpy and lonely.

Night after night, I sat alone in a dark room with only the computer monitor illuminating the small space where my chair supported my gluteus maximus much better than than the wood-bottomed chair did in first grade.

I did so much right and a whole lot wrong, but I did not give up and quit because my mother’s encouraging words were still echoing in my head…“You are special and can do anything you want to do.” Honestly, I did not feel very special when I stared at error messages which seemed to speak a total different language, but still caused the same feelings of frustration, aggravation, bewilderment and anger to well up inside of me. Losing or being unaccomplished was and is not an option, so I would put my head down on the desk to rest for just a moment to gather my thoughts. Unfortunately, I often woke up hours later with a kink in my neck. That was a very common scenario in the blogging beginning.

No matter how difficult the task, I persevered with renewed determination to successfully blog although I was unclear exactly what “successfully blog” meant to me. I designed my blog and tweaked the results many, many times before I finally decided to create the blogrolls which are my other six subject specific blogs. They helped me organize the blogs that I followed, sharpen my blog designing skills and extend my knowledge of writing the code that makes a website functional on the internet. All the while, I sat in my very comfortable chair with my mother’s voice in my head saying, “You are special and can do anything you want to do” and I believed her.

Which brings me now to the end of last year when I decided that I wanted my own dot com and envisioned a redesign of my blog in order to point it in the right direction. Changing to my own domain with the web address http://www.TheRedheadRiter.com was very easy. Revamping the design…that was a whole different story.

I had to learn a whole new designing language. Of course, that was only a part of the complexity of this change. The other part was deciding what and how to make it better, stronger, faster – bionic! Not quite bionic, but much more in line with my goals. I have tried to mention this to you as preparation, not to tease and tempt you with the upcoming changes. No, I am not telling a lie! That is the whole truth, nothing but the truth!

Now, I truly am not only seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but I am a few steps from the end of the tunnel and the sun is shining down brightly on my face metaphorically speaking. Each night, I can not wait to get home so that I can plant my butt on the chair and have my fingers fly over the keys on the computer keyboard.

It has been especially difficult to complete all the changes to my blog because of the PTSD that plagues my mind and soul. Why exactly I decided to revamp my blog at the same time I changed job responsibilities and was suffering some of the worst PTSD symptoms you can imagine, is TOTALLY baffling and all out confusing to me.

What was I thinking, but more accurately stated, I was not thinking in my right mind!

Now, however, I can feel accomplishment and I know that victory is just a few steps away. I am so eager to be finished with this blog project, so that I can enjoy the fruits of my labors. Will I really be able to complete the tasks ahead? Can I keep my gluteus maximus in the chair, my fingers typing and my eyes staring at the monitor?

Oh yes!

How can I be sure?

What kind of question is that!?

Just a second. I need to break open my fortune cookie and read it.

(crack)

(bite)

(crinkle, crinkle, crinkle)

Ahhh, yes.

It reads,“You should be able to undertake and complete anything.”

(soft chuckle)

I can do anything according to my mother and the fortune cookie.

Neither my mother nor the fortune cookie have ever lied to me.

I am definitely choosing to believe them.

No, the cookie doesn’t talk!

I said I suffered PTSD, not that I was crazy.

(rolling my eyes)