The Beginning of Posterity

When my daughter Beckett was born on June 11, 2008, many, many people told me to "write down EVERYTHING...because there is so much to remember yet so much you'll forget."  I used to fancy myself a writer (undergraduate degree in English Lit with the dream of one day writing the "great American novel") so I thought it would be easy to set up a blog and record the daily trials and tribulations of new parents and new baby.  And this was of course the same thought that many, many other past and current writers and bloggers have had when they, too, became new parents. 

So in those first couple of crazy weeks, once I was off the Percocet (C-section recovery), I sat up late at night a couple of times with my laptop trying to just record some of those trials and tribulations - and I just couldn't write anything that was worth anything - so I let it go.  Instead of writing, I read a lot - several parenting books and excerpts from a couple of "inspirational motherhood books" and just general modern fiction.  And a few months later, when we moved to Erie, PA for my new job, I did start a journal of sorts - a handwritten journal, and I started at least writing down various things of note, some of great import (to me) and sometimes just brief recordings of the day's activities - just to record what we were doing.

It's been about 2 years since I started that handwritten journal and I've recently been inspired to start writing this blog by a journalist at the Erie Times-News, where I run the website, GoErie.com.  Gerry, the journalist, and his wife Erica, recently adopted their new baby girl and Gerry has shared his own take on parenthood in a couple of weekly columns.  Gerry and I have also had some chats in the hall, around an old fashioned water fountain (in lieu of the cooler) about the various facets of parenthood.  Part of what prompted these conversations was my inquiring about how Gerry and Erica were doing in the early days of being new parents and also Gerry letting me know when he had written a column on life with their Nora.  Gerry's articles have been full of genuine emotion about having his new daughter, and his expression of his thoughts and the depth of feelings he reports has resonated with me.  I let Gerry know that I felt more parent to parent connection through his writing that the scores of other parent resources I have read in the past two years.  I told him about my desires to write about my experiences and about my handwritten and sporadic journaling.  Through these dialogues, Gerry has kindly encouraged me to "write it down" but in this format - a place where it may be physically easier to write but also a place where I may express the depth of emotions that I feel every day about being Beckett's parent, being Beckett's Mama, being Beckett's friend. 

So I have decided to start a more official account of my life as a parent and more specifically as Beckett's Mama and friend.  Much more to come, but for now, here's to the beginning of posterity.