2019 A to Z Theme Reveal

In a few days, I will be starting the A to Z Challenge.  This is the 10^th year of the challenge and I have participated in three of them (2013, 2016, 2018). The basic premise to to write a blog post every day (except Sundays) for the month of April. Each day should correspond with a letter of the alphabet.

Pretty simple, right? Thousands of people all over the world take part in this challenge and the numbers keep growing every year. All of the people participating also sign up on a Master List so we can see who else is writing this month. We can visit each other's blogs and find new online friends as well as discover other writers we enjoy. Today marks the Theme Reveal Day for all participants.

My theme for the month is very personal. Each post will be about a person or group of people who I believe has heavily influenced my life or way of thinking. There will be a few of the obvious posts (siblings, parents, wife, etc.), but I wanted to dig deeper. I already have the 26 posts (and people) selected. A few specific childhood and college friends made the list. I will write about a couple of mentors and one of my high school teachers. Not every post will be positive. I had a bad business partner from whom I learned some life lessons and a crush that did not go the way I would have liked. Good or bad, these will all be stories about how my way of thinking or looking at the world was altered because of my experience.

For the people who I had a positive experience with, I will praise them and show how they influenced me. A few of them probably have no idea how much they affected my adult life. I look forward to sharing these posts with them to let them know.

For the negative experiences (I will  be writing about two), I will refrain from using their real names. Although, I do not intend to speak bad about anyone. It will be more about what I have learned and not what they did. I expect to genuinely search my feelings and get real with these posts and do not plan to seek out the humor as I normally do. I have prided myself on this being a humor blog, but I am not going to push for the laughs in the month of April.

Because I will be talking about real people, I have decided that I will not post the links to Facebook. I generally throw every post I write to Facebook. However, many people who personally know me would be able to figure out the people I am talking about even if I do not name them. Of course, whatever I say will be publicly on my blog, but I will not flirt for a bigger audience among my personal associates.

My intention is not to just tell stories about my life. I want to concentrate on my personal growth using my interations with other people as the springboard. My first post will be on April 1 about a dear childhood friend who died too early.