Now, I'm not talking about my value as a person or my value to my family or to the in my life. However, I've been giving some serious thought about my fit within the DOC (Diabetes Online Community) family and beyond.
The Issue
To give some perspective to this issue, I spend a tremendous amount of time commuting - 2 hours each way to and from work. One might think this downtime could offer me a wonderful opportunity to come up with some creative stuff. But as it turns out, I suck at writing blogs while travelling. Sometimes the demanding days plus the ups and downs of my diabetic life collide, and I don't have the energy to do anything but tweet 140 characters at a time, or just take a nap while travelling. So as it turns out, my most creative moments do not happen while I'm enroute to and from work.
Once I get home, there's the rush of getting dinner on the table, making it on time for DSMA night, or just having the energy to stay awake while watching the next episode of Castle (Best.Show.Ever). Ok, I lied. I don't have any trouble staying awake for Castle, but once I've watched it, I'm ready to fall into bed, and then I rinse and repeat.
So lately I haven't even had time to visit the blogs that I've always loved reading. I just can't keep up with them all. So it seems to leave me with the rather sucky choice of choosing whether to read them or trying to write something that I don't have the energy or inspiration to write.
Don't get me wrong. I do love this blog and I fancy myself an ok writer. But apparently I can only write a complete blog when I'm inspired. If I get distracted (which happens easily), they get abandoned (poor little orphans). I estimate that I've got a half dozen or more unfinished blog posts because this whole living life, dealing with diabetes thing keeps interfering. I don't have time to read blogs, I barely have time to tweet (except for the aforementioned train tweeting) and I certainly have little time to advocate, which I feel is a very important thing to do given the state of the misunderstandings out there in the wild.
So what is a person to do?
After reexamining what my strengths are, I've decided to focus on the JamieAnNa Journal. It occurred to me that this little rag is perhaps the perfect venue for me.
I figure that by doing this, I can combine my love of reading blogs, taking the time to feature the ones that have some inspirational story, some informational tidbit or a snip of randomness that I think readers might might like too. So I've decided that I'm going to put on my very stylish editor-in-chief hat and rock this paper with the stories that touch me - and hope that they might touch you too.
I hope that the JamieAnNa Journal will become a go-to place to find some great information and be entertaining at the same time. I plan to feature the real people - in the DOC and beyond - who live with diabetes every day. I will provide information in a compelling, entertaining and somewhat eclectic way - because that's what I like... and I'm the editor. So why not!
I do hope my skills as an editor will allow me to connect with those already part of the DOC, and will reach out to more people who have yet to discover the DOC - and reach out in a format that might go beyond Twitter or Facebook - in an interesting way. I hope it will become a go-to point for people with diabetes of any type - whether they have type 1 diabetes like myself, are part of the type 2 diabetes crowd, or whether they are type awesomes - who are part of our invaluable support networks.
More than Diabetes
Another important point here before your eyes glaze over with all this diabetes talk - this paper will not only be only about diabetic stuff. True enough, it will often feature diabetes, but just as I am about more than diabetes, so will this paper. I will still keep an eye out for some cool technology, neat ideas, pop culture, random bits of political theatre... who knows what it might have.
Finally...
As a final note, my blogging days are definitely not over. As Editor-In-Chief, I reserve the right to feature my own blog from time to time. Hey, why not - I feel no shame in admitting that I would do such a thing. So the Flying Furballs blog will still be live and ready to go when the creative moment moves me.
So over the next few days, I am going to be reimagining the JamieAnna Journal - heck, I may even be changing the name. So stay tuned. I'll be sharing soon.
And I figure why not give this a try. If I can take on this diabetes thing, I can do this too.
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