What's In A Name?

A post has not even been published and already this blog seems used to me. It's gone through many name changes, layout changes, and half-written blog posts. Yet still, it remains empty. I had marked tomorrow as my first blog post, as I will be going to visit a friend I have not seen in quite some time tomorrow and thought it would be a great adventure to write about. I would fill that 'first' post with pictures and anecdotes that we had shared. It would be full of wisdom and catching up. But, while I will still write that blog post, the emptiness of this blog got to me and I got the urge to write. Perhaps this pegs me as a writer? I don't mind if it does. Sure, I can't open Word or TextEdit without getting the urge to litter it with my thoughts and imagination, but I'm quite okay with this. Really, I am.

Now, comes the question of what I will write comes into my mind and my mind produces so many answers in return. I could write of this...or of that. What of that? It's all so tempting, but I think I will stick to my original idea of discussing my blog title: 'The Many Adventures of Jessica Elyse Pendergast'. I mean, what is a blog without a title, right? Well, it's still a blog and while I'd prefer not to have a title, BlogSpot doesn't have that option. So, begrudgingly (with a figurative Colt 45 pressed hard against my skull) I was forced to create one.

Now, I've always liked to view life (and every experience in it, whether good or bad) as an adventure. Every day is a whole new adventure. It's something we can cherish, enjoy, learn from, and it can even change how we think and who we are for the future. Everything we do is an adventure in itself and we are adventurers. But using this view in a blog title didn't come automatically to me. No, I went through several titles and several blogs before coming up with my current one. Many of them were cliche. Many of them were simple and boring. None of them stuck.

Eventually, I changed sites. First, I deleted my old BlogSpot blog, which was subsequently inactive. I changed sites to livejournal.com and blogdrive.com before going on an unannounced haitus (not like I had any readers anyway). I just wasn't posting very often and when I did get the urge to, I never knew what to write. I figured I had enough to worry about with juggling life (including work) and school anyway. Blogs just weren't that important. Both blogs still exist, but are to this day inactive and I have no urge to repost at them. No, I need a clean slate, to start over. That's what this blog is. It's a restart button.

It was last week while I was reformatting my flash drive after writing a very important paper on the Vemilion Cliffs that I found a folder entitled 'BLOGPOSTS'. While I had the urge to click the delete button and say good-bye to the folder forever, I didn't. "Maybe when I find time or some creative spurt of energy," I told myself and left the folder alone to rot within the depths of my flash drive. It was during that week that I got the sudden urge to go on an amazing adventure. Whether it was a drive to Venice Beach or a trip to the Getty, I was up for it. Sadly, neither happened and my weekend was spent in mundane bliss. I was invited on a camping trip during that week, but that will be left for another blog post (since the camping trip won't be taking place for a few weeks). It was while I planned through the many adventures I could enjoy during the week/weekend that I thought of recording them in a blog so that others may see how much fun I might have and may smile just as much as I had.

And then my view came into play. Isn't all of life an adventure? What would keep me from recording my life as an adventure? Not just the truly adventurous parts either, but the mundane parts as well as the happy, exciting, sad, and philosophical parts. They are all part of the adventure. That was when my blog title was born. It just took a few days for me to finally sign onto BlogSpot to create a new blog and get it fixed up, but the title itself was born days ago.

Eventually (once the blog was created), the title evolved from 'The Great Adventures...' to the 'The New Adventures...', finally finishing with 'The Many Adventures...', which I think fits best. Not every adventure is new or great, but there are many of them, a variety of them from positive to negative. And out of my many previous titles and endeavors, this title just seems to fit the best. It seems...perfect.

And while this post might seem boring (and I almost stopped writing it because it bored me), I would much rather have a blog title that means something to me rather than just something that vaguely introduces the reader to my mind or thoughts. I'd like to have some explaination that they (and I) can relate to and say 'Oh, okay' to, while vaguely introducing me in the way a title does. Because there really is so much in a name, even in a title. There's a person there, a writer whose 'soul' is being poured out. The name should fit. It should make them feel at home. And to me, a blog by any other name just wouldn't be the same.