I Rewatched the First Episode of BBC Sherlock Last Night and Made a Blog Because of It.

So John Watson has this blog. In the first episode his therapist coaxes him into updating this blog weekly. "What do I even write about?" John asks. "Just write about what happens to you," his therapist says. John laughs bitterly, "Nothing happens to me."

I feel the same. I mean things happen to me. Things are always happening; they never stop happening. Often I find myself wishing that everything would just stop happening...

But nothing extraordinary happens to me. I'm a college student, working toward a Creative Writing degree (yes, I do have anxiety attacks about the uselessness of my degree almost every week, thank you for asking). I work as a writing consultant three days out of the week, and on weekends I jot down a chapter or two of the novel I'm drafting. I have three cats and a dog and twin younger sisters and we all still live with my parents even though my aforementioned anxiety perpetually convinces me that I ought to be financially independent at age twenty.

Which isn't to say I'm financially nonviable. I don't even have student loans--none! Since my consulting job is a work study, technically my university pays me.

Which would be thrilling for most people, and it is a relief, but I have this condition called "Perfectionism" and it's really debilitating, so even though I make straight As and am going to college for free and have published a few short stories, my blog doesn't look Pristine with a capital "P", so my brain is 99.9% positive it'll be the worst out of all my classmates.

Oh did I mention that? I didn't mention that. This blog isn't for fun, not just for fun, not really. I've been told that I don't know how to have non-work-related fun, but how can you blame me when there is always so much happening--

The truth is, this blog is for school. For a class. Unlike John, I don't have a therapist (though if you're still reading this then you've likely deduced that I need one), but maybe my professor will be able to accomplish the same thing.

For the next six weeks, I'm supposed to upload a post of my choosing every Tuesday. And if it's not clear that I am an well-worn doormat of a student by now then you haven't been reading properly because frankly that's elementary dear Watson, elementary, but allow me to swear that you can bet your boots (or your oxfords or your pumps but not your Crocs because if you're wearing Crocs in 2022 then ew get off my blog) that you will receive a new book-related review/rant/rave every Tuesday.

On Thursdays I've got to upload these blog posts that my professor assigns. On the first day of class he explained them as "themed", which is a bit of a non sequitur since they appear to be randomized. There's an interview, a top five list, a review... But don't you worry your pretty little heads over it, I'll work them in. I'm thinking I ought to call them something, like a column in a newspaper. "Bonus Bones to Pick", maybe? But that has too dull a ring. If any of you possess a rapier wit, feel free to comment.

Feel free to comment even if you don't possess a rapier wit. I don't possess a rapier wit, so over the next six weeks this is all you can expect from me, these glorified journal entries. Because sure this blog is for my class, but in the future I'll keep it as my author website and for the time being I'll use it to scream my writerly and readerly frustrations and anxieties and even victories to the wind (or more accurately, to the void of cyberspace), and what's the phrase...?

"Misery loves company." So I'd love it if you'd share your opinions with me, even if you fundamentally disagree. Especially if you fundamentally disagree. Hate and love are such physiologically similar things...

See, the real point of John Watson's blog isn't for him to write about what happens to him for the writing's own sake. John's therapist wants him to write about what happens to him because doing so will ground him in reality; it will help his brain override the waves of his PTSD.

I'm hoping this blog does the same for my anxiety.

And who knows? One serotonin-inducing theme song after John's iteration that "nothing happens to him" he meets London’s friendly neighborhood consulting detective drama queen, and he and Sherlock summarily become partners-in-crime…solving. Maybe my blog will reverse-psychology my life in the same way. Maybe extraordinary things will start happening. And maybe my mojo will instill extraordinary happenings in the lives of all who read.

Or maybe I'm being melodramatic, and maybe it won't. Worst case scenario, we use this blog as the virtual equivalent of the fireplace in 221B.

The game is on (for the next six weeks). Who's with me?