Breakdown: The First Chapter

Hello, world. Nice to meet you. You can call me K.G. It is as good as anything else I have been called in my life, I guess. I've never made an attempt at a serious blog before, but I'm beginning to think that not only would my life make a great soap opera, but that it will help me (and maybe some of you readers out there) to put down my thoughts and experiences somewhere solid.

So, I suppose it might help if I gave some background information, some exposition to the story as it were. I'm in my early to mid twenties and I reside in New York state. My home is, as of September, an apartment with my boyfriend in a complex full of geriatrics and other students. I have both parents, a sister, two half-sisters, five dogs, one bird, and various friends, enemies, and exs. My career is that of the perpetual student. Actually, to be more precise, I get paid to be a teaching assistant...but my end goal is to get my PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience, find a job teaching at a small university or college, and have a small lab dedicated to neuroethology (the study of the neural basis of natural animal behavior).

Hmm...what else? Well, when I was in high school I was diagnosed by my family physician with clinical depression, just like my father and grandfather. I took Prozac for about a year before I decided I wanted to learn how to cope on my own without the meds. I've been relatively stable ever since, although recently I've been finding myself getting down a bit more. It could be seasonal affective disorder, or it might be the instability of my personal life - but we'll talk about that more later!

I've been with my boyfriend for a little over a year. Before I met him, I was engaged to be married to a nice boy I had been with throughout most of my undergrad career, but that boy and I grew apart and I started grad school with a clean slate. My boyfriend is the most amazing and frustrating guy I have ever been with. I'm the kind of assertive, domineering woman who always dates guys I can have some amount of control over. It sounds terrible, and it is, but I admit that I have always liked to have the guys I love wrapped around my finger. This one is different, though - a real man who stands up to me and fights with me, who is passionate, sexy, intelligent. I really love him and he really loves me, but between my personality quirks and his issues and baggage, we fight all of the time. Which not only is problematic for us within our relationship, but also has caused a huge rift between me and my family, who feel that I should leave him and find someone better.

I will post again soon, but I need time to gather my thoughts and figure out how best to tell my story. There is so much I want to tell you. My past, my achievements, my downfalls, my strengths and weaknesses, stupid and fun times with friends, broken hearts...the best storyteller can find a way to weave it all together so that the reader keeps coming back for more. I would like to be that kind of storyteller. If I can do it with my life, maybe I can write those fantasy novels I've always wanted to publish. So, world, all I ask is you give me a chance. I promise, I will try not to disappoint.