For the Love of Words…

This weekend while chatting with another blogger at the BlogHer conference in New York I took a trip down memory lane talking about the magazine Sassy.  Editor-in-chief Jane Pratt steered her team of talented writers, photographers, and artists to create irreverent and original content each month primarily for teen girls.  Sassy reached me at a time in my life when the typical teenage fare left a bad taste in my mouth.  I wasn’t interested in the latest teen fashion or cookie cutter pop star.  Instead I wanted to read about cutting edge musicians and global topics.  The occasional picture of Evan Dando didn’t hurt, either.

I love moments like this that snap me back to the heart of why I love to blog.  The love of words.

Just last month my mother discovered a play I wrote in fourth grade and earlier this year I found a bookmark I had written around the same time, hidden away in one of my childhood books.  On it I listed book titles that I hoped to write complete with my pen name, Samantha Hall.  I suppose that when you’re 9 and your name is Amy Lupold, Samantha Hall sounds much more like a successful author.  And when you’re a stay-at-home mom writing only emails, a blog sounds like a much needed lifeline to a side of yourself long forgotten.

But reality gets in the way.  The worry that drove me to add a secondary education major to my literature degree also led me to the two years I have spent in social media marketing.  Is it fear?  Is it greed?  Is it necessity?

I’ll never forget the look on my college advisor’s face when I chose my honors program capstone.  Rather than research literacy rates in impoverished school districts or analyze the similarities between Mark Twain and William Shakespeare, I instead wrote a passionate, bold three act play complete with computer screens on the backdrop and a gospel choir in the living room.

It’s hard to be bold and responsible.  But one thing will never change.  My love of writing.