The Beginning

So, I've decided to start a blog. Not like anyone will ever see it, but it's something I want to do. This, I believe, will become a sort of landfill for my mind - a place where I can just spill everything that's in my head. There really won't be any set style, just what I'm feeling that day. But for my first post, I'd just like to share with you the meaning of my blog's title.

I have decided to call this blog "Apropos of Nothing." In order to describe it's meaning, allow me to back up a bit. I'm a bit of an English nerd. I love this language that we speak and I love literature - reading it, analyzing it, writing it. For those of you who aren't familiar, the phrase "apropos of nothing" comes from Stephen Crane's short story, "The Open Boat." In the story, a small group of men are stranded in a small row boat after a shipwreck. In the latter half of the story, the narrator says "Shipwrecks are apropos of nothing." In this, he means that shipwrecks are something you cannot prepare for. But I just love that phrase (and the word apropos). Merriam Webster Dictionary describes Apropos as meaning "with regard to/concerning," so when saying shipwrecks are with regard to nothing, the narrator perfectly describes how there is nothing similar to a shipwreck for which to properly prepare yourself. The only way to understand the circumstances of a shipwreck is to experience a shipwreck for yourself.

Such is life. There are certain things that you just cannot prepare yourself for. You can read all the books, watch all the movies, and listen to all the stories about shipwrecks, but until you're stranded in the ocean for yourself, you'll never know what it's like. Heartbreak, death, stupid daily drama - these are the shipwrecks we face. These are the situations you're never truly prepared for. And no matter how big or small these things are, they always seem to sneak up on us somehow. It's not until we go through it (on a daily basis) that we understand it. Therefore, I draw the conclusion that life is apropos of nothing.