If I were to reintroduce myself…

I know there are at least three of you who have been following this blog since the beginning. That means that you probably remember my first ever blog. If you’re not one of the original three, or you just want to refresh your memory, here’s the link. Please be kind in your rereading… I was in 8th grade (14 years old!) and clearly I was not having the best day. Why am I making you read this again? I promise, there’s a point.

I follow quite a few blogs, and they always have really well-thought-out, well-written first posts as a way of intriguing new readers. I don’t have that. I have a 300 word, rambling vomit of thoughts (note my word choice) from a 14 year old. Not my greatest of first posts, even for the age I was at, but clearly I’ve come a long ways. And that’s what I want to do today: a reintroduction of sorts, to set the stage for the rest of my blogs to come. Sure, I’ve got an “About” page, but it’s pretty minimal (though I have updated my featured posts, so check it out!) and I want something more substantial. I owe sickly 14-year-old Bri that much.

So first off, hi there. I’m Bri. Not Webmistress Bri (though you may call me that if you like, punctuated by a bow or at least a grave bowing of the head), not Vannah (long story), and not Pete (even longer story). Bri will be fine.

This website was a birthday present from my dad six years ago, but even before I had my own domain name, I’d had my own webpage as an offshoot of my dad’s business’s website. It was called “Bri’s Place” and it read like the rantings of a 12 year old psychopath. Not something I’d like to revisit as a web theme, frankly. What’s important here is that I’ve been on the internet for a while, and I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

Though I never had too high of aspirations for this site, as it was mostly just a place for me to post my antics for friends and family to access and laugh at, it’s grown into something I could have never even imagined. It’s a place, a “world” if you will, of everything I’ve ever thought about or wanted to try. I’ve posted animation, drawings, videos, original songs, poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, and novels, I’ve posted rants from my worst days and reveries from my best, I’ve shared deeply personal secrets and spoken out against injustice, and more than all of that, I have grown up in this website. If you were to read every single post of mine, chronologically, you will find something important: though my life is anything but perfect, throughout the years I have become a happier, smarter, and more thoughtful person, and that’s almost entirely the influence of having an outlet for my creativity in this website.

I didn’t grow up with many friends, and even now the number is more limited than some, and this website filled the holes during my lonely teenage years. It was the place I could go when there was no one else to talk to, it was the forum I needed to get out all my angst and pain and triumphs, and it was where I went to find my place in the world.

Since that first random, rambling post in 2006, I have graduated high school and finished the first two years of my college career at Pacific University, the first physical location I’ve ever felt truly at home. As a creative writing major and integrated media minor, this website has given me the leg up on my classmates, since I practice my craft without even being asked. I live in an amazing dorm apartment with three of my best friends, I’m a part of a collab channel with six people from around the globe, I’ve finished seven original novels, I’ve gotten into slam poetry, I’ve traveled the globe with my speech team, and I once blogged every single day for a year on this very website. I’ve dumped two boyfriends, met and been dumped by a boy on the internet, loved and lost, gone through my parents divorce, gone through therapy, made and lost friends at an alarming rate, and burned almost every bridge I ever constructed without remorse, because the best days of my life are still to come.

So what should you expect from me, and from my blog? Honestly, I have absolutely no clue. But it’s sure gonna be a fun ride.