I’ve begun.

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Like many things I do, I am starting the Slice of Life Story Challenge a day late.  I still have a wrinkled note in my pocket from February break reminding me to create a WordPress blog early, before March 1^st.  That note has been transferred daily from nightstand to pants pocket, from pants pocket to nightstand.  For three weeks, I didn’t throw the note away because I didn’t want to ignore the challenge I’ve been seeing for weeks on my Two Writing Teachers emails.

I finally created the blog an hour ago.  On March 2^nd.  Not on February 2^nd.  But that’s okay.  Because today, I am writing.  I am a blogger.  I have accepted the challenge.

The longest journey begins with but a single step.            – Lao Tsu

I’ve begun, despite staring at the quote above on my classroom wall for years and doing nothing to start a blog of my own.

I’ve begun, despite the piles of my 6^th graders’ work weighing down the guilt bags I take home from my middle school each day and ignore each evening.

I’ve begun, despite the planning and photocopying I need to do to get ready for tomorrow’s English lesson.

I’ve begun, despite trying to help my youngest child of three stay organized and finish his homework each evening.

I’ve begun, despite the hectic lifestyle my wife and I (Nell is also a teacher) have carved out for ourselves.  But most important of all:

I’ve begun.

Now go do your best.  Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.  Goethe said that.

–  Frances McDormand as Elaine Miller, Almost Famous

I chose to name my blog Always Going Home because that is where I return to time and again in my writing.  I drift back to my childhood memories of growing up in Western New York State in the seventies and eighties, and I also tend to write about my three children as well – Jimmy, Maggie and Danny.  I am looking forward to daily trips home in March.