Since starting this blog, I’ve posted each day. I started posting daily as a challenge and experiment to see if I could maintain a daily posting schedule. I’ve had trouble some days and not posted until almost midnight on others. But I’ve not missed a day yet.
As a result, a couple weeks ago, I decided to compile all these posts into one PDF when I reach 365. That way, it would create a journal for you (or me) to read over my older posts in an easier format. But that means…
Each and every post will be included. Each and every post will contribute to the journal. Each and every post will count as part of my life.
Right now, I’m writing disposable posts – here today, gone tomorrow. When I compile this PDF, very few people will read it – at first. But for the rest of my life, it’ll be available for anyone who wants to read it: future employers, future clients, future friends, future relatives, future spouse, future generations. Not that they will read it, but they could if they wanted.
That means what I write today is forever. I mean, I always knew that, but somehow I forget often. I start posting stupid stuff, stuff that doesn’t matter even when I post it. That’s sad… and scary. I don’t want to be known and remember by that stuff.
What’s even scarier is that someone could read any one post and assume the rest of my writing is the same.
Life, while in many ways disposable, is the same way. Most of it will be forgotten, but some of it – any of it – could be remembered. I want to be remembered by all the amazing parts of my life, but what if that’s not what everyone sees? Everyone might see any part of me and build their “Marshall stereotype” completely around that one part. That’s sad… and scary.
Just as any part of my writing could be seen as my whole, so too could any part of my life be seen as my whole. That’s scary. That drives me to responsibility.
- With my writing, it means making every single part reflect what I write completely.
- With my life, it means making every single part reflect who I am completely.
It doesn’t mean I have to cram everything into each post or each moment of life, but it does mean each an accurate representation of what and who I am. That’s scary… but it drives me to become better, to make everything count.
Make everything count because, for someone, it could.
