Dharma's First Blogiversary!

Happy Birthday, Dharma Monsters.

One year ago today I started this blog, following in the big footsteps of my blogging idols, Dooce and Owl Bling, and stirring with anxiety about my first year of high school. I had a vague case of hypochondria and was at that wily point in my life where every little thing could set me off. Not to say that I've drastically changed from that, in a year, but instead to say that at least now I can take a breath and let things go.

My first entry was about my period. (awesome) I gave a flimsy introduction about myself and the books I read, the things I believe, and offered this lovely quote: "My name's Brighton, I like cats and SUICIDE."

The next entries were sort of boring, though I will admit that the one about the FIRE OVEN was pretty exciting. This was written before I knew the magic of line breaks and thought that long paragraphs meant interesting ones!

Then

           I bec

ame

E.E. Cummings.

Looking back through the archives, I've come to realize that Poetry night at Marmalade truly changed my life. Before, my only training in the poetry world was the regular, required reading. Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, a few dipping of my toes into Jim Morrison, but never something quite like the live poetry I got myself caught up in. Poetry night was the reason my writing (poetry, that is, there's no helping my essays) is the way it is now.

It's kind of awesome, though, that I've kept this blog for an entire year. A year of funny change, and high school, and that one time I spent a day with Kyler and came back walking funny, and Project Runway. A year of Shear Genius and poetry, and new friends and bookends. 

To wrap up, I'd like to share a few of my favorite quotes from the past year.

"I think that when I closed my eyes, a Mack truck snuck up on me, and crushed my will to live."

"I am smart, I am optimistic and pessimistic, I am realistic, and I don't try to prove people wrong just for their reaction."

"There's poop on the keys!"

"Sometimes she'll yell at me like, 'Kyler, you're a bastard!' and I just say 'Oh yeah, well you're a dyke!' and she's like 'Oh, yeah, you've got me there.'"

"You have monkey hands. You have monkey hands that are small, therefore, I am going to play with them, because they are small, and like a monkey's."

So here's to you, little Dharma! Happy birthday, and I wish you many more.