First Post

Talk about feeling dumb as a post! After a month of trying to get to this point, I'm finally here, thank you, Ruth! How I missed seeing the sign-in spot at the top of the page, I don't know, but I did. I've had my own personal blog for three years and used it regularly to post my poetry, but after about six months, it changed to just family-oriented notices, and now is hardly used at all. Hopefully through the library network, I will be better at maintaining this one.

It has been exceedingly frustrating trying to get information about the process to use for getting active on More Things on a Stick. I feel just as I do when I come late to a movie and miss the opening scene--I feel out of control, out of sync, and the feeling carries through the entire movie, wondering what I missed that might have been important for getting the drift. There is no way to turn to someone in the next seat and ask about the opening scenes and lines without missing even more of the movie as well as disturbing that person's enjoyment of the movie as well!

Was there more initial direction in "23 Things" that is missing this time around? I'm like a first grader who desperately wants to attend school but can't figure out which door to enter. I call this the Threshold Syndrome, about which I want to write a book someday. When I worked in the university system, I found that many new students feared taking that first step across the threshhold of a new class, a new activity, a new relationship, but once someone took them by the arm and wrestled them in and stuck by them until they felt "at home", they were just fine. Without the mentoring, they never became insiders, and eventually dropped out.

How can we find, or start, a mentoring program for on-line activities and learning, especially for the faint of heart? It's fine to say "find like-minded co-workers or others and work together on the Things," but how do you find someone if no one in your locality is involved, and no one who already has a blog (that you know of) is able to help? It would be nice to have a list of people who can help a first-grader cross the threshold.

But never mind. I think I'm in the room now. If I can remember how to get back in again, I'll be fine.