First of all

This being my first post, I’m putting an enormous amount of pressure on myself for it to be something of meaning…if not in the most universal sense, then at least something meaningful to me. Unsurprisingly, I’m unable to produce anything at the moment…which is oddly typical of “First”s.

Everyone celebrates the first time…baby’s first word, child’s first day at school, etc. This celebration of beginnings puts a strange emphasis on “First”s. What’s even stranger is that the first time is most often the worst because we don’t know what the heck we’re doing. As such, we find ourselves in a cycle of celebrating these flawed disappointing beginnings over and over.

Perhaps it’s depressing the way in which our “First”s will never live up to the hype. On the other hand, maybe it’s admirable that we continue to celebrate the moments when we are at our weakest in the face of these disappointments.