Back for more

It has been such a long time since I've written a paragraph that attempts anything other than communication of information. Assignments, journal articles, emails - creativity or pleasure squeezed out under the pressure of necessity. Considered, evidence-based writing a straight-jacket on the excitement of a finger-pointing rant or an indulging introspective wallow. I can feel rusty synapses creaking (some snapping perhaps) as the brain attempts an old routine that has become unfamiliar.

There are two main reasons for this unexpected return to blogland. First (and maybe foremost), I am going to sit GAMSAT on March 20. Perhaps a reason for my prolonged absence here is the degree of uncertainty that has been surrounding my plans for the future. Career options have been changing daily, the stockmarket more predictable than my next idea for a job. As such it has seemed pointless in constantly providing updates, with an occasional tangent bemoaning the quality of commercial media journalism. So how is GAMSAT and blogging related? Approximately 20% of the test is two short essays (about 25 minutes each to write). And the best practice for writing them in the appropriate style under the appropriate time constraints is to do so on this blog (and hopefully get some critical feedback on the writing - and the ideas if one feels the need).

There are two essays - the first is a more structured critical response to a set of quotes relating to a socio-political issue, while the second is more a reflection or consideration of a set of emotional/personal quotes. So I hope to follow each of these styles every other blog.

The second reason to write only revealed itself after I'd already decided to start writing again - or does this invalidate it as a 'reason' and make it a consequence/side effect?

Upon opening Hoist-the-spinnaker for the first time in many a month I thought I'd check the activity of other bloggers on my side bar, first was Beck's blog. Suddenly I was transported back to Tanzania - not the Tanzania that I remembered most clearly, but the Tanzania that existed for the first 6 months of 2008 - the Tanzania that was relegated to distant memory, a previous life, that was overlaid by the events of mid-2008 that split life into two separate parts. It's a cliched start to a book, dividing life into 'before' and 'after' a specific event (or sequence of events in this case). But that is how it is.

So there I was, 10 minutes and 2 years ago, amid the energy, excitement and wonder of those first six months. Juxtapositioned against life as I see it now, the impassioned interest in life and the unknown seems replaced with an academic scrutiny of appropriate options. Or maybe I just look and feel older. Am I superimposing an innocent youthful energy on images of the past? Either way, I figure that by once more venting what needs to be vented and letting my knee-jerk reactions to events jerk unrestrained - something might happen, don't know what, but I'll wait and see.