This blog isn’t for you, it’s for us.

Starting a blog in 2025 is a little like screaming into the void.

A quick Google search reveals that there are believed to be 600 million blogs online (who knows how many are generated by AI). Almost everyone wants to have their voice heard, even though the number of individual voices swells beyond 7 billion. Of those who do get to speak, fewer still make it out of the algorithm to be heard. So why start a blog now when it’s almost certain that few, if any, will actually read it, actually see their hearts changed, or remember it in the decades to come? It’s simple. This blog isn’t really about who will read it. It’s about me being able to speak.

For most of my life, I have been at a loss for words. They escaped me right at the moment I needed them most. I grasped one-liners days after the insulting jab, or rehearsed what I wished I had said for years after the argument ended. Sure, I’ve practiced how to approach conflict and effectively persuade a person to truly understand my position hundreds of times, but when it came time to actually articulate what I had practiced, again, words failed me. In nearly every situation where I need to express myself, I often freeze, unsure of how to proceed.

So why start a blog? I need the practice of articulating my thoughts precisely. To remember how to communicate. To think critically about the words I choose.

Beyond this, I, like many other women, have begun to find it challenging to find the time, energy, or even simply good timing to thoroughly discuss and exchange new ideas. Friends are entering new life stages: babies are born, moving trucks are packed, weddings are planned, and in the midst of it all, it isn’t easy to sit and think about what we’re learning and how we’re growing. What books am I reading? In what new ways am I caused to think and believe about the world and myself? Many times, it feels inappropriate to bring up existential questions when so many around me are trying to survive and dealing with much more concrete problems. (I do, too.)

So why start a blog? Because I cannot forget that I still have big thoughts. Thoughts that I have infrequently put to words.

In a similar vein, I am also reading books and have committed to a season of learning. However, I’ve noticed over the years that I don’t remember what I’ve read unless it was groundbreaking, and I’ve shared it with multiple people. However, when everyone generally has less bandwidth to take in my latest obsession, it isn’t always appropriate to extrapolate. I hope this blog can serve not as a substitute, but rather as a supplement to help me synthesize and integrate what I learn into my daily life. I remember writing a lot as a kid, writing summaries, book reports, and essays that connected my learning. As a teacher, I know the research and have my students perform these tasks myself. As a graduate student, I have been asked to do this for research articles and textbooks. But for the dozens of books on culture, psychology, or history I choose to read each year, I don’t do anything.

So why start a blog? Because the very act of writing helps me learn and integrate my understanding of the world and my place in it.

Amid the attention economy, where so much begs for us to look, I am taking this piece of the internet to write as critically and clearly as I can. Not so that a million people can see. Instead, so that I can practice and take joy in the process.

So, dear reader (AKA Holly), welcome to the new season of practicing articulation.