On Embracing

Just over a year ago, someone showed me how to hug. Having grown up in an environment where little, if any, affection was displayed after surpassing toddlerhood, hugs were understandably not my thing. When I realized what I'd been without for so long, however, a simple hug came to mean the world to me. That simple, effortless act of caring - when received on enough occasions - served to remove the distrusting and doubtful reservations that had kept me from living happily for eight years.

But life changes and I don't get as many hugs anymore. While most of the hurt has healed, it feels like that void will linger, only to be lessened by the occasional embrace of a friend or perhaps a dream that makes me dread wakefulness. I never knew how much joy a touch could bring, or how much sorrow its absence could cause.

I don't publish this to invoke pity (although sympathy hugs would be appreciated, ha ha), but to call the reader to consider the value of a hug. I appreciate the loving people who give their kind embraces freely and I remember being one who felt awkward receiving a hug. If you're one of those, just smile and let it happen maybe it can change your life.

It's difficult to know what the future will bring, and while past embraces cannot return, let's all look forward and hope hard for lifetimes of sincere, fulfilling hugs.

Progress!

All right, the blog is looking a million times better! Oh, and apparently "Writes of Passage" is a fairly common play on words used in many contexts, so I've decided to go back to one of the other awesome names on my list. The design changes were all courtesy of Eli, big brother extraordinaire, and the background is a photo I took last summer. For now, I'm trying to think of a clever post to make, so check back soon!

Origins

By now you are probably wondering who you are, why you are here, and how this blog is so lame-looking and yet has my name attached to it, but I know you came for The Hannah, and You know you came for The Hannah. So now that we're on the same page, let's discuss how this blog came to be, and be assured that I will be working on the appearance for all you shallow critics out there.

I've actually been thinking about starting a blog for a few months now, since I've been making a lot of observations on people and the world as of late - so many, in fact, that Facebook just can't handle all the posts it would take to get my thoughts out.

The title of the blog is one of many I considered but it seemed the most pertinent. I consider myself to be in the thick of "growing up" experiences, enduring many rites of passage in the last two years. So it applies to much of what I'll be writing, and it's win-win, because who doesn't love a good play on words?

I intend on writing any deep or hilarious thoughts that come to mind because you all know laughing is one of my greater strengths. For any fans of a certain vampire "saga" that seems to be popular beyond all reason at the current time, I probably will write occasionally to comment on it so I'd suggest working on developing a sense of humor about these things because I won't be apologizing. No worries, though; this isn't going to be a bashing blog. Most of all it will be about my experiences so all my fans can keep track of what I'm up to. Bwah ha ha!

I hope this will be enjoyable for us all. Good luck.