Carrie Callahan

I am not a "digital native," but I am a digital transplant. I only exist online because I put myself here. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I've finally made Facebook , Goodreads , and Amazon author pages for myself. Suddenly, I go from observing to existing. I didn't grow up with a digital self - a crafted version of my personality for cyber country. I didn't have consistent access to the Internet until I was twelve, and I didn't have a cell phone until I was 17. It was a Nokia phone with a background of two colors: black and green. You kids might recognize the color scheme from old fashioned calculators and the LCD clocks you find in thrift store bins. These days, if you don't have a digital self then you don't fully exist in the social sphere. The Internet has become its own universe and social media is where we do the things that used to be limited to shopping malls and night clubs: we walk and talk and flash and greet and...

In April of this year, I graduated college. I was quite proud of it, as I'm the first in my immediate family to do so. I'm also proud of how I spent my college time - shoring up The Writer's Guild , being an RA, and generally busting my ass in every classroom to grab each and every coveted "A" (stands for Acceptable - as in, the only grade acceptable). My standards were high. After graduation, I moved to rural Louisiana where my husband is stationed with the military. I thought it would be boring, but idyllic. A place to relax and write. After the hectic pace of university life, however, it was more isolated than relaxed and completely lacking in the underlying academic structure I'd become reliant on to stay focused. For some time I was aimless, depressed even. I thought if I got a job things would be great. Well, McDonald's was about the only place I could get employed and it wasn't exactly an inspiring work environment. Soon my writing outp...