There was a time when I was so naively enthusiastic about life and the world that I would write in my journals, at length, about any particular topic that struck my fancy. I have a chest full of journals with pages full of uninhibited sentiment and pure nonsense. The nonsense, perhaps far more useful than the sentiment, documents the wondering and wandering of my youth, adolescence and young adulthood. Now that I take myself too seriously I often miss the opportunity to think a single thought so truthfully as those written in my journals. I hope to one day find room and make time for the nonsense and the sentiment again.
Though I’m not sure this will ever be the place to stutter through my sentiments or babble on about things of little interest to others, I do think it will serve as a placeholder in the virtual world, a listing of sorts. I’ve decided to make good on a promise I made several years back, a promise to publish a website that would represent, at least in some fashion, who I have become since my days as a young journalist at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. I’ve been quite happy simply owning the domain in order to prevent something terribly interesting from being published under the name ashliewhite.com (a lesson I learned from a dear friend and mentor Ross Taylor while I was in undergrad.)
Today I live my life as a student, a documentarian, a daughter, a lover, a fan of the arts and a patron of humanity.
I’ve struggled with the concept of ego in publishing such a site, one dedicated to myself. I hear the annoying and childlike voice nagging “look at me, look at me,” taunting my better judgement. My self-indulgence is overwhelming as I press publish. And, at last, I am just another .com. It is comforting to know that far fewer people will ever read this post than those who know me personally by name. Keeping that in mind, it is my hope that this site will, at the very least, represent me in a theoretical sense, with all the randomness that makes up my being, in case someone should ever wonder what Ashlie White is up to.