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My name is Marissa Wood and I am a ninth grader at Centennial Jr High school. I live in a family of six, and I have two older brothers and one younger sister. I love to cheer and dance, I also like to ski up at snow basin. 

My favorite color is blue. And my favorite restaurant is either Arby’s or Panda Express. But I also love Italian food. I also love to go on hikes, to boat, and anything outdoors. I also love to spend time with family and friends. My favorite holidays are the fourth of July and Christmas. 

I love to travel! And I have been traveling my whole life but my very favorite place to go to is Costa Rica. It’s in Central America and it is out of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I have been there twice once, but the second time I went it was more fun because we stayed with the locals in a house in the middle of the jungle by the beach! Another place I loved was New York City. I loved how different it was from where I live and how many people there were and how there was so much going on.  

I go to Centennial Jr High School and I am in ninth grade. My favorite subjects in school is English and art. Also, at my school I am on the cheer team and it is so fun! I love being involved in the school and going to all the games every week. 

I also like to ski, I ski up at Snow basin! My whole family skis except my mom. Another hobby I have is dancing I love dance I do ballet and I have done it since I have three years old. My favorite part is doing Nutcracker. Nutcracker is a dance my studio does that you tryout for, we do it up at Weber State and it is so much fun! 

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.