"I will never start a blog."

That's what I told myself way back in the beginning...when blogs were something new and exciting and fun! Later, I reminded myself again when practically everyone I knew and their mothers were blogging. And I said the same thing when I discovered my cat blogging in the middle of the night while I was sleeping. Okay, I get it...EVERYONE is blogging. But still, the idea always seemed ridiculous to me...why would anyone want to read about all the crazy crap running around my head on a daily basis? It's hard enough for me to handle, so why would I possibly want to subject the people I consider friends and family to that kind of madness? Nope, I'll never start a blog. Not interested, Don't Have Time, Not Enough To Say, Never Happen in a Million Years.

Well, here it is. My first blog post. Well, second technically, if you count the test post.

As I sat down to type it I suddenly remembered why I swore I'd never do this. The minute I clicked on "create new post", I was paralyzed. White screen...blank...staring at me, mocking me, giving me the stink eye. A big scary monster, with pointy fangs, just waiting to eat me all up. Staring at me with beady yellow eyes and hideous breathe.

I typed in a title and almost hit the delete button.

And then, in a rare, light-bulb kind of moment I realized...that scary monster is fear. Fear of what people will think of me, fear of being judged, fear of failure. The scary monster with pointy fangs lives in my head. He's the part of me that says "see, I told you not to try something new...It's uncomfortable and difficult, and you're not a very good writer".

Well, screw him. I never was one to back down from a good fight, so here's to conquering fear, and learning to never say never.