Keep it Personal.

Being personal in an academic setting feels weird. We’re taught for so long to write the brunt of our work in such a round about manner, and up until this class anything I wrote had to be written in the third person, unless instructed others wise. And I’m not the only one who seems to have felt awkward shaking that training off. I’ve looked at some of the blog post of my fellow classmates, especially in the beginning. Many of them tried to write their blog post almost like a mini essay. A lot of academic speak. A lot of run around to avoid using any word that denotes a personal connection, in particular “I”. Its why when I did my first blog post I was concerned I was going about them wrong. But then I thought, fuck it. The way I saw it my professor wanted a blog post on a separate site that operated similarly to Tumblr, or LiveJournal, or A03. The minute I saw that, I figured write first and ask for forgiveness later.

I regret nothing.

Which is good because not everything I’ve posted on here is an absolute banger. And this is me being kind to myself, cause honestly I am hyper critical of myself. Something’s I wrote before reading articles and sometimes I put them together after. Sometimes I changed my content, and sometimes I didn’t, but either way what went down on these posts was purely me. Not me trying to be round about, not me keeping my distance as though I was a casual observer. But me.

I.

I think that’s why I agree with Kate McKinney that using “I” can cause people to strive to be more honest. When you have to say something with your full chest you’re gonna be more likely to ensure that you dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s. When you take ownership of your action in a study or in your research you are now putting yourself on the line. If there’s gonna be any kind of criticism you want to make sure it is valid criticism because now you’ve taken personal ownership of your actions, or at least that’s how I see it.

So whenever possible make shit personal. Own your words and your work. So what if one day you look back and don’t agree with them, or see the flaws in your logic. That was you in a moment in time striving to sort out truth in whatever you were working on. It was a step in your journey.

So say it with your chest.

Keep it personal.