Lost in Thoughtiversary

Happy birthday Lost in Thought Blog—you are seven years old! 

(epistolary) 

You make me feel so smart, like a background character in Dead Poet’s Society or The Secret History. An ex-lover (not an ex-boyfriend, but someone who affected me I’d say) whom I met on my nineteenth birthday sent me a voice note last week reflecting on the three years we have spent apart. We talked on the phone for two hours and he asked me about my writing. He saw my blog—he saw you! He thought it was so impressive that I put so much effort into my career and future. Little does he know you’re actually the only thing that keeps me so motivated.  Symbiosis.

I am a second semester senior and I love my classes: Making Democracy Work, Forms of Writing Essay, Digital Marketing, and Senior Seminar. I am reading 250-500 pages a week but with zeal to learn. After week one, my mind is replaying the dissection of linguistics and rhetoric in daily phrases. I am thinking about how songs, podcasts, drama, and movies are essayistic. It is human nature to document reality and share that—which may be part of the definition of essay that I am building. I am reading essays, memoirs, journalism, and theory texts on those too. I am reading political science papers and psychology. I feel so smart. I learn more every day.

Community has been making me feel so warm. There are about 600 people in my senior class, and we all are starting to realize that this is it. Friendship is starting to reach beyond friend groups, and we are joining together more as a community despite what sorority, fraternity, sports team, or major we typically stick to. I go to a very small school as is so we all know each other even if we haven’t previously talked to each other. I think it is a sweet spot because it’s small enough to know people but big enough to come together. Walking through campus a series of hellos and how are yous that make me feel important because I belong and I am me. I am proud of how I have come out of my shell these past four years.

Lost in Thought, you are the reason I am the woman I am today. I have my first post-grad job interview scheduled. I officially launched my freelance business. I am a double English major who has pivoted into the business world thanks to you. I have a decent following on TikTok and I am posting every day for at least the first six months of the year. In all aspects of my life, I am putting in the work, and you hold me accountable. I am almost 22 and I believe I can transform my life by the time I am 25 if I keep putting in the work. I want you, Lost in Thought, to be part of my life forever. Cheers to the first 7 years of the rest of my life with you! 

-Emma Claire Ritter