Hi Friends. 

It’s sure been awhile, hasn’t it? In the years since I last wrote a post, preteens have graduated high school! Newborns have started Kindergarten! A bunch of other things not school related also happened!

Some awesome things, like:

-Getting married (in 2019 right before the pandemic. Woofta!).

-Moving to a new house (also in 2019, right before the market went crazy. Another woofta!).

-Finally booking a trip to England, which has been a dream of mine since I was seven.

-Gaining a niece and nephew!

-Landing tickets to Taylor Swift’s Era tour in June! Speaking of T-Swift, in the time since we last chatted, she’s released SIX albums. If that was the only positive thing to have happened in my life that entire time, I would be a happy camper. 

-Hamilton being released on Disney plus and occupying all parts of my brain for a solid two years. 

-Writing five books of poetry and finally sending poems off for publication.

Some not so awesome things, like:

-Losing some loved ones unexpectedly (and going into a mass anxiety-induced spending spree as a result).

-That time we all went through a massive global pandemic (and I went into another mass anxiety-induced spending spree as a result).

-All the rejection notices trickling in from everyone who doesn’t want to publish my poetry.

And some things I’m just not too sure about, like:

-Turning THIRTY. Excuse me while I weep excessively.

You know, little changes like that. But some things haven’t changed, even the things (especially the things?) that I would have liked. I have the same job, the same puttering little car that I got when I graduated college (NINE YEARS AGO, MY GOD I FEEL OLD), the same hell-raising pets, and probably the same mindset as I did at 25. I certainly don’t feel older, other than in my joints (seriously, I need to get my knees checked out this year). 

So, why now? After five years of my finger hovering over the ‘delete’ button for this blog (not the ENTIRE five years, obviously, I did do other things) why did I decide to come back now?

I think there are a lot of complicated reasons I could go into that relate to all of those changes and not–changes over the past five years, but at the heart of it–this blog made me happy and I wanted a piece of that happiness again. Sorry, that sounds a bit depressing, like I’ve lived a life absent of joy and sparkles and kittens, but that’s not true! It just felt like the right time to revisit the past to get to where I need to be in the future. 

Anyway, I’m back now, DON’T QUESTION IT!

Even though I’m back, I couldn’t just pick off exactly where I left off. I’ve changed enough that I wanted this site to reflect that. I’m no longer a person in their early twenties ambling through life in a sea of confusion and helplessness. It’s not that I was a Pippin and now I’m a Gandalf. I haven’t suddenly swapped all my waywardness for wisdom (and anyone who’s met me should know I’m a Gimli by my stature alone). However, I do have some more perspective, confidence, and stability than when I was younger. I’ve also been working in libraries for a long time now, and they aren’t the forefront of my life anymore. My job provides me the means to create the rest of my life, but it doesn’t take over my entire being anymore. Since both those things have changed, the title and original purpose of this blog no longer makes sense to me. So, “Assumed Lost” is OUT. See ya later tater (potatoes are way cooler than alligators. You get to eat them instead of the other way around)!

I didn’t think long and hard about a new name because it doesn’t really matter as much as what’s written beneath it. I went with the first thing that popped into my brain, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a back story. Babbling Brooks has a lot of meanings. It encapsulates my tendency to ramble awkwardly when trying to communicate with other humans (a skill I just utilized in a work meeting this morning. Go Emily!). It reminds me of the brook that ran through my grandmother’s yard growing up. That creek is why I’ve always wanted to live near water. I mean, I still don’t, our birdbath is the best we’ve got, but I love the idea of it! One of my aunts, whom I adored, passed away unexpectedly in the time since I last wrote in this blog. When she was in school, one of the names a teacher called her was “Babbling Brooks.” It was probably meant to be an insult, but it always made me smile. For all those reasons, “Babbling Brooks” is the new name of the blog. It invokes peace, wandering, and talking incessantly about nothing, which are all pieces of who I am.

So here’s how things are going to go:

-I’m going to post both about things that you’ve all missed in the past five years, as well as things that are happening right now.

-I’m still going to talk about random stuff in my life along with some more structured posts. I’m not going to make a lot of other rules right away, because I’m still not great about following structure, but I’m working on it!

That’s it. That’s the whole plan.

I hope to see you all very soon!

Love,

Emily

a.k.a. “Babbling Brooks”