Friday, January 10, 2014

In Which I Explain The Title




Hello Joanna. :)

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Ellie.  I'm twenty-five years old and hail from the Midwest.  I like Polaroids and books and glasses and hiking and daydreaming and handheld pies and Switzerland and rain and stop me if you’ve heard this before. No wait, don't, because I want you to get to know me a little!

My first love is sandwiches.  My second love is writing.  It is how I express myself; without writing, I would be a terrible mess, creatively and emotionally.  I also love children, crafting, baking, online shopping, and relaxing in front of a fire until my eyes glaze over and the flames go soft and blurry.

Ultimately, I am who I am because of my family, my faith, and my life experiences. They have shaped where I've been and where I'm going.  It is only in the last few years that I have fully come to realize and appreciate that.  As such I enjoy getting to know people, who they are and what makes them tick. Any way in which I can connect with another person fills me with delight, and that's why I love blogging.  Reading and writing blog posts all over the web has connected me with some truly amazing people.

But let's get to the matter at hand.  Why did I create this blog?  Consider it an open letter to you, Joanna.  You're asking for an editor and this is my answer: let me be your spoon! That illustration could get weird but bear with me because I have a fondness for analogies and wordplay.  You are the main event, the cup of jo(e).  You've expressed a desire to stir things up and make exciting changes--for that, you need a spoon! So here I am, wanting to help you take A Cup of Jo to new heights.  
Where do you want to go?
Who do you want to reach? 
What do you want to find?
I want to help you answer those questions. 

What's in it for me? Well obviously all the reasons you listed in your post: learning how a blog works in the big time, personal exposure, and a chance to be part of an exciting expansion.  Here's what else: I happened upon your blog two years ago and it threw open the doors of my perception of blogging.   Technically, I have been an active blogger since I was thirteen years old.  I wrote my first post about the perils of middle school on a website called Xanga, under the username one_foot_in_the_sand.  I fell in love and kept on writing, switching to the MySpace platform in 2004 and then finally Blogger in 2007.  I've been here ever since, writing about my life under the heading of Hither & YonBut it wasn't until I discovered A Cup of Jo that I realized what blogging could be.  Call me late to the party but suddenly it wasn't just about travel stories and funny personal anecdotes.  It wasn't just my digital diary to fill and then leave floating in cyberspace.  It was about sharing all the other cool things out there in the world and on the Internet, about trying recipes and DIY projects, inspirational quotes and moving photographs, and finding out there are other people in the world with the same hopes, questions, and joys as me.

It was your blog that accomplished that. So by helping you in the next step of your journey, I get to give a little something back.  Call it paying off a debt. Call it a step in fulfilling my dream of blogging as a career. Call it whatever you want, as long as you call me

Ok that was a little too on the nose. But stay with me, I'm almost done! 

What do I have to offer you? Let's start with what I don't.  I'm going to be completely honest here.  I don't have experience in the blogging world as far as loads of readers, industry connections, or knowledge of coding.  In fact, and this may do me in, I don't live in New York City.

BUT I could. I want to. And if I have a chance at this amazing opportunity, I will.

+ I have creativity, a huge sense of humor, wide-eyed enthusiasm, and a very solid grasp on spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  
+ I'm an eager student: everything I know about the mechanics of blogging, online marketing, Photoshop, and html, I've taught myself.
+ I am an amateur photographer, avid Internet consumer, and social media savant (here is my blog, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube channel, Vimeo, and blog Facebook page).  
+ I'm friends with a very clever graphic artist named Miranda (she's currently working with me on a blog redesign) and a NYC-based photographer and associate photo editor at Food Network Magazine named Anna.
+ I'm excellent at organizing (both physical and digital spaces), written communication, making lattes, arranging flowers, making conversation, running errands, and bringing baked goods to the workplace. 
+ I'm excited about food, design, travel, art, literature, movies, music, fashion, and epic games of hide and seek.  

So there it is.  My application to be your editor/coffee spoon. If you're reading this, then you got my email with my resume attached. If you managed to find this page BEFORE receiving my email, well then it's fate.  The stars are aligned, Joanna.

Well, regardless of the outcome, I thank you for taking the time to explore my life and blog for a little while.  At the very least, it must be interesting to get to know one of your readers. You share so much of yourself and yet hardly know most of us, I imagine. Thank you so much for all you do. 

Regards,

Ellie

No comments:

Post a Comment