BLOGGING OPENS PORTALS TO POSSIBILITIES

Who'd have ever thought I'd become a blogger, certainly not me!

Amazingly average is about what I think of me and my life. Average. Just average. Merely average. About average. Or even middle average. These are all words I imagine would best describe me. Definitely not the coveted above average and hopefully not the dreaded below average.

What does all this talk of average have to do with blogging, anyway? Isn't blogging just a fancy name for an online company, group, or family journal? I thought so, that is until this week. I am a recent twitter tweeter. I entered the twitter realm because of my Facebook connections with friends who posted a follow me twitter link on their Facebook account.

That's all it took.

A few twitter friends and connections later an entirely different picture of blogging and its possibilities opened before me, one click and flash at a time. Writers blog. I love to write. Teachers blog. I am a teacher. Moms blog and so do grandmas. I am blessed to be both. For all I know astronauts blog. I am not an astronaut. But in July 1969 as I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on our black and white TV with all our neighbors in our backyard I believed it was possible for me to be an astronaut -- if I wanted to be.

While online journals are a viable and desirable blogging option, the possibilities blogging presents now astound me with wonder. Blogs I have visited inspire me to dreams. Thoughts others have shared infuse me with awe. Wonder invigorates, dreams motivate, and awe satiates, aren't these the ingredients of early childhood? I ask myself, and I answer a resounding yes! For I am an early childhood educator. Not only that, I once was a child.

I distinctly remember the imaginary worlds my playmates and I would create. Worlds where spaces could easily overlap and enfold upon each other, where time could stretch or shrink at will, and where distance was overcome by the opening of a door. We created whatever was needed to meet our needs. We could go anywhere, do anything, and be anyone we wanted.

Blogging and social networking in cyberspace are like that. Open a window to a blog from England, click on a new tab and open a window in Australia overlapping the one from England. Chat with several people at once; two in Canada, another in New Zealand, and, including yourself, three in the US. Sitting at home alone I can meet other people, far and near, doing amazing things, big and small, being exactly who I am. Once again I can transcend time, distance, and space in the spirit of discovery. I am a world traveler.

I like this new world I am discovering. The possibilities gather every residual fragment of wonder, awe, and dreams remaining from my childhood. I am on the threshold of a new adventure. Through blogging I can open portals to new friends, new thoughts, new ideas, new experiences, and new learning; at many times and places simultaneously. I am a life long learner.

Considering all things I am combined I would have to say the sum total is pretty equal to average. My life is as normal as most other people my age, isn't it? My nearly fifty two years of experience show me most people my age were once children filled with wonder, awe, and dreams, grew up, pursued an adult role in life, married, had children, and became grandparents. Most are on a quest of continued personal growth and discovery. Doesn't that make me average?

For now I am content to be average.

Meanwhile with my new endeavor, blogging and networking in cyberspace, perhaps I have become an amazingly average cybernaut.