Having done nothing with this blog for the nearly two years that I’ve owned it, I’ve struggled with pinning down my niche. I considered a travel blog (but the traveling aspect became a bit difficult once I ran out of funds and gained healthy amount of debt from my one-year stint in graduate school); I briefly attempted a blog devoted to poetry, but five years of rigorous academic study (i.e., paper-writing) in art history have pretty much rendered me an anemic poet. And I certainly didn’t want to start a blog if it would be at risk of virtually becoming a me-me-me! blog—or, in other words, a diary.

This past year has brought a whirlwind of major changes and realizations into my life. I moved to Philadelphia in January 2010 to begin my MA in art history at Temple University; for that one year in graduate school, I excelled in my courses AND cultivated a healthy social life (a slightly trying feat for me as I had become a kind of über-student somewhere along the way, and I have some difficulty with adjusting to changes–whether geographical, interpersonal, etc.). But in the fall of 2010, my focus and interest in my graduate studies began to wane significantly, leading me to withdraw from the program in March 2011. I just wasn’t sure–and continue to be unsure–that a graduate degree in art history is what I want.

At any rate, my time in Philadelphia marked my first real experience of living on my own–of handling rent, income (however sparse and sporadic), student loans, utilities, and all that goes hand in hand with dealing with all of the above. Sure, I had meager experience with a couple of such matters throughout college and the year and a half between graduation and moving to Philadelphia: during college, I held a two-year job on campus while living in student-targeted properties which required only modest rent and utility payments each month; after graduation, I maintained a full-time job for a year, but had practically no significant expenses.

All of this is to say that, admittedly, I had a pretty cushy college experience—I had a rather generous trust fund, didn’t need any student loans, and had a handful of lucky circumstances. I realize that’s not the status quo for the “college experience,” and I’m grateful for that—especially after my failed attempts to be a well-organized, self-sufficient adult in graduate school.

After putting my graduate program on hold, I held a dead-end receptionist job for no more than two months and left without a solid back-up plan. Well, Philadelphia is not the most affordable city in which to live, especially when you have poor budgetary skills. Essentially, I forced myself into a position where I had no other choice but to return to my hometown and once again live with my parents—at the age of twenty-five, with a Bachelor’s and half of a Master’s.

But this blog isn’t about school, jobs, loans, or finances; it’s not about the mistakes I made whilst living on my own as a graduate student; and it’s not about the dolor of resorting to living with my parents after discovering that I’m not quite sure what I want to do with my life.  This preface, of sorts, is just intended to introduce myself as someone who has plenty of work to do—work to organize aspects of my life and thought processes; and work to figure out where I want to be and what I want to do.

So, then, really—what the hell is the purpose, the point, the keynote of this blog? Well, the idea is to share my anecdotes about attempting (and hopefully, more often than not, succeeding) in restructuring and reorganizing facets of my life and—without sounding too ridiculously hokey—myself.  I’ve been compiling something of an arsenal of tools, resources, and techniques in support of my objectives (though I haven’t yet utilized all of them myself) and plan to discuss the things I put to the test: what they’re meant to accomplish, to what extent I’ve made use of them, and how effective they were for me.

I don’t claim to be an authority on organization, productivity, or knowing how to better one’s life in general—rather, in many instances, I’m far from a reliable pundit.  But I’m ambitious, and I’m dedicated—to my own goals and to the development of this blog.