Are you there, Internet? It’s me, Sofia.

I have (finally!) created my own website to showcase my writing—this, after several years of thinking about it, knowing I needed to do it, and berating myself for not having attempted it yet. But as they say, better late than never. (Who are “they,” anyway? And why are they always so wise?)

I must admit that this whole world of blogging/FB/Tweeting is odd to me. I am not saying it doesn’t have value. (I think it does.) And I am no Luddite. (I am on the computer constantly, and my iPhone has officially become an extension of my hand.) But for me, the disconnect (no pun intended) is in the self-revelatory nature of the beast.

I have always been an introvert. It’s why I spent entire childhood summers reading. An only child and the youngest of my cousins in the States, I was the kid at the table with the adults while the teenagers were off being teenagers. Don’t feel sorry for me—I had, and still have, lots of wonderful friends (if you’re reading this you know who you are, and you know what we did last summer), and I adore my family, but my default position has always been as the observer rather than the talker. It’s why I pursued a career in journalism.

One of the best things about reporting a story is that it gives you license to get past your shyness, go up to strangers, engage them in conversation, and discover all sorts of cool things. (Among the non-introverted, this is simply called “life.”)

So, what I’m saying is that I’m not at all used to being the one waving the flag yelling, “Hey, look at me! Here’s what I have to say about myself!” Which is why blogging, Tweeting, and, um, Facebooking (we must come up with a better verb for Facebooking) strikes me as a wee bit strange.

Then again, I grew up in New York City, where strange is mixed directly into the concrete, so I’ve decided to embrace it. (Strangeness, I mean—not the concrete, obviously. Though if you’re into embracing concrete, who am I to judge.) Anyway, here I go…