I decided that since we are in a period of history that will be studied, I am getting back into blogging.
It used to be that writing was a way for me to get all my stress out. Then my stress just got to be too much. Moving to a new climate zone, getting married, trying to get pregnant, trying to figure out my career options, all of these things piled on my psyche over the last four years.
Then the election happened and I knew I needed to take a blogging break. It has almost taken a year for me to get back to the point where I want to write.
Let’s talk about the election and how it affected me first.
If you’ve read any of my blog, you probably know I’m very liberal. Back when George W. Bush became President, I used to rant and rave about his idiocy on my blog from time to time. I wasn’t politically active though. Mostly, I was aware, but didn’t do much outside of voting. I barely ever wrote to my representatives in Congress and never went to a town hall meeting.
Back in 2016, I had a bad feeling about that presidential election. I used to check out Five Thirty Eight daily just to keep my anxiety at a minimum. I didn’t understand it at the time. Why was I freaking out over an election? I’ve been through several, but for some reason this one felt different. People were acting different. They were hella pissed off and they didn’t seem to know why. They were just fed up with something. What and why was a mystery to me. As far as I could tell, the economy was doing pretty well, but maybe that is just in our neck of the woods.
Of course, now we know why. There was foreign interference in our election.
When the election was over, I was in shock for a long time. It wasn’t that the party I supported lost. I’ve been through that before and didn’t stress too much about it. This time it was as though a tragedy happened. I felt almost like I did on September 11th. It wasn’t the same, but there was a similar numbness and fear.
The holidays helped bring me back to life with their distracting food and events.
Then January happened.
This time though, I decided to take action. Since January 20th, I’ve written to my representatives in Congress every week. While I’m not sure that it’s making any actual difference, it helps me feel less helpless.
At least I know I’m not alone. I went to a town hall back in January/February and was blown away by how many people not only were in attendance, but were just as scared as I was.
All the other stuff that was going on in my life and causing stress has figured itself out. My job is great. We moved closer to it, so now I don’t have to freak out as much about the weather. I still hate how freaking cold it gets here in the winter, but driving in it is much better for getting to and from work.
The election thing still hangs over my heart. Time is healing my shock, but I’m trying not to get back into a mood of complacency. I will keep writing to Congress to keep the pressure on them to check the balance of power.
This guy is straight up awful. It embarrasses and frightens me that he represents the US on a global scale. By the way, I won’t use his name on my blog or even in social media posts because I don’t want him to have any of my SEO or any undue attention.
The pregnancy thing, I’ve pretty much stopped thinking about it and I’m happier for it. Around my time of the month, I tend to wonder if it will come or if I’ll be late, but it always shows up on time. At least I don’t have to worry about birth control, so I got that going for me, which is nice.