thesis and mission statement

Hi all!

This is the boring part, but I wanted to give a sort of introduction to myself and this new blog. I decided that after having been in graduate school for a year, living in a new city for roughly 9 months, and beginning new work experiences this summer, it was time to move past the old blog.

I'm not really sure how to begin this blog - as obviously it is new, and it is my first attempt at joining blogger. There are many reasons I decided to join blogger; many of them revolve around audience. I like the idea that many people can post comments to one's blog. My previous blog was designed for a specific audience - namely my high school friends - and I feel it has lost relevance as most of them have ditched the blogosphere for more important, pressing issues, like, school, family, significant others, jobs. This is obviously geared toward an audience as well, but I'm going to try hard in this one not to limit myself to certain topics or censor my thoughts so as to make them appropriate or relevant. I'm sure that will be a challenge for me, as I'm a people-pleaser, but I shall strive to deliver solid entries with entertaining (?) musings on my life.

Another reason for a switch in blogs, relates to the direction my life is taking. My previous blog contains entries about college, BOYS, drama, tears, travels to England and is sort of a hodge-podge of emotions and thoughts and voices. I'm not going to claim that this blog will be any different (as I'll talk about later) but I'm hoping to focus more on a career, future goals, and personal adult growth as opposed to when I began college and began understanding and learning about the person I wanted to become. I'm not going to promise anything, but I'll try to tone down the drama that my readers saw in the years 2004-2008, and focus on what I'm learning, rationally express what I'm thinking, and what paths I can take to reach my dreams and goals.

There are some things you should know as you begin to read this blog. I have never claimed to be an expert on politics or current affairs and so this blog will pretty much exclude those topics. I do of course recognize these are important and vital topics, but as I feel insecure in my knowledge of them, they will rarely appear in this blog. As the title of this blog suggests, I prefer to turn the gaze of this blog inward to myself in hopes of figuring out my thoughts and dreams. I also see my particular blog as a void - one that I can fill with my creative juices - so if you continue to follow this blog you'll see more of the arts side of things - from Art History - which I am studying in graduate school now, to poetry and literature that I enjoy as well as my own verse and prose. There will be a healthy dose of emotions mixed in; it's just how I roll. I see a blog as a way to vent, type out frustrations and anxieties and loneliness and sadness, and get them out of my head onto a blank screen. If feelings and emotions scare or disgust you, you might want to skip those entries. Sometimes they get a little heavy when I'm stressed out with school. I make no apologies for my thoughts; I try to express them clearly and succinctly so that people understand what I'm feeling at the time. I don't mean to scare anyone off, but if my appearing "on the brink" makes you uncomfortable, I would advise you to skim the entries before you commit to reading a heartfelt rendering of "A Day in the Life of Emily." Like I said, I'll try to cut down on these... but I can't make any promises.

Here are some additional subjects that you, as a reader, should expect to see:

• references to a year abroad in England (this is almost inevitable... sorry.)
  
• my own poetry, or writing
  
• a poem of the week or month ??
  
• hopefully a description or recording of my internship at the Milwaukee Art Museum in the Conservation department, what I do and it's relevance to the museum and the artwork and you - the viewer.
• topics in Art History such as things I find inspiring in class or in my papers
• entries posted in lower case letters (for some reason I really enjoy writing with no caps)
• travels (hopefully!) or frustrated entries about how I wish I could travel more...
• adventures or new experiences in Milwaukee and Wisconsin (I'm still figuring this place out.)

I think I'll conclude this entry for tonight.

Tomorrow I begin my Conservation Internship at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I'm both excited and a little nervous - but I'm eager to learn about the department and what it requires. It's just a small step towards figuring out what I want to do with my life, but I can't wait to see where it leads me. Cheesy but true!

Emily

Post Script: Some of you might be wondering about the title of my blog. I already explained that my writings tend to be directed inwardly rather than at my outside surroundings. But it also comes from a line in a poem by William Wordsworth. Extra credit to anyone who can figure out the poem's title!