It starts.

I'm not a blogger.

I don't even really know what a blogger does, or if there are a set of requirements one must satisfy before they can be called a blogger. Is blogging really a verb? Am I as behind-the-times with my blogging initiation as I was with cell phones (years ago)?

When I first began to see cell phones appearing in the hands of business professionals and wealthy twenty-somethings, I said to myself: "I will never own a cell phone." I thought they were presumptuous and unnecessary. I disliked the idea of being available 24 hours a day. I disliked the idea of appearing available 24 hours a day.

I went to college and began to notice an awful lot of students walking around campus with a phone to their ear. I felt superior - smug even. Surely, these people fancied themselves more important than they actually were, and their arrogance annoyed me. I chalked it up to egotism of youth.

Soon, it wasn't just college students...it was everyone! Teachers, students, housewives, (gasp!)children! We had entered a wireless wilderness, where if you didn't have a cell phone, you were simply unreachable. Cell phones had become one of the basic necessities, a requirement. I started to get used to the idea of being able to reach my family and friends at any time; if I could not hear their voice at a moment's notice, something was wrong. By the time I actually received (as a gift) my first cell phone, it was as if it had been there with me all along, waiting patiently for me to accept it into the family, like a stray cat that's been living in the garage for 6 months before it's finally allowed to come inside.

I do this sometimes. I resist something new on the grounds that I have been functioning perfectly well in my life thus far, and don't need to change. I often trick myself into believing that I am above such things. I invariably discover later that I am above very little, and nearly always find that I have once again taken myself too seriously.

My initial reaction to the idea of a blog was very similar to my initial reaction to the idea of a cell phone: who the hell do we think we are? How can we assume that anyone wants to read what we have to say? It was awhile before I realized that wasn't the point. The blog isn't about everyone else, it's about me and my voice. And if other people want to join me while I rant on the world, snark on my surroundings, meditate on my life, or make fun of someone else's, then...well, rock on.

Yeah, alright. I'm a blogger.