So, you have seen it before. The first posting of a blog. Someone said, "If you like to write, you should start a blog." Brilliant, because there aren't enough blogs, right? 'So, what should I write about?' is the logical first question, but I realize now, not the best question. The question should be 'What do I call the blog?'


When I settled on blogger over wordpress (no easy decision there by the way since I don't read blogs), I was forced to title my blog and create my blog address. This is a commitment. I don't like commitment. I probably would have started blogging years ago, before it was passé, but I had to commit to a title. I sat at the keyboard this evening thinking and typing in possible blog addresses that weren't already snapped up by my blog-savvy predecessors. I came back to that same question, what am I writing about. I probably want to write about nutritional issues in having a vegetarian/vegan family. Ok, but nutritionalmama.blogface is already taken. What about nutritionalmom.blogsplat? Am I crazy? If one form of maternity is taken, I can be sure they are all taken. 


Then I start to worry about what this blog will evolve into when I am no longer a mom. Well, I suppose I will always be a mom. Nutritionalmommy.blog will look kind of strange when my kids are 35. Plus where is the credibility from a woman who calls herself 'mommy' to adults? Geesh, this shouldn't be so difficult. I'm into natural things and I think the all-time funny thing is a food product that touts itself as 'all-natural.' I even rant in my classroom (more about that later) about how everything could be called 'natural'. My stapler is natural. So is my desk. "Please bring your papers to my all-natural desk," I tell my 10th graders. Because it is natural it has to be good, right? So, there is my blog address...ncnaturalmom.blogthingamajig. I live in North Carolina. I am natural. I am a mom. It is that simple. Or is it?


No, it isn't that simple. The bigger question here is not what I am writing about, it is how do I identify myself? 'Mom' sounds like I am hanging onto my kids for my identity. Will I try to listen to their music and talk like their friends for the next 18 years? What if I say I'm a Wife? I might sound like a subservient wife who wears skirts and doesn't mind a sister-wife or two. If I say I'm a Woman I sound kind of butch. Forget female. While I am one, I see that reserved for the box on a medical form. Girl? You will expect my blog to be texty and clever, which it probably won't be.  I could have been NC Natural Friend, but that might seem Quaker or desperate to be someone's friend. While I might be all of these names...mom, wife, woman, female, girl, friend...in some way or another, mom is the one I chose because that is the one with which I am trying hardest to reconcile within my identity.


Women have it tough when it comes to identity. I tend to over-think things like this. Hey, maybe I should have chosen NC Natural Over Thinker.