Blogger: Padraic Maroney – “The Neurotic Urban Millennial”
Each month, when I sit down to write my latest masterpiece for The Daily Feels, I struggle to find a topic. As a sometimes freelance writer and an award-winning (hey, it just happened in November so I’m going to milk it) marketer extraordinaire, I shouldn’t have much of a problem writing. Yet, here I sit each and every time, procrastinating until it’s almost due, trying to figure out what to write.
One of the differences is that in those cases I don’t have to worry about writing anything personal. As a journalist, the number one rule is to keep yourself out of the story. I can write about the time Channing Tatum shared the story about burning his penis, what director Darren Aronofsky ate during our breakfast interview, or a profile on how hilarious Jane Lynch is in no time flat. I hope you didn’t trip on all of those names I just dropped on you.
Sure, writing movie reviews you give your personal opinion, but I am really good at being judgmental, so it suits me well. Also, it helps that I have been able to make myself delusional enough to believe that no one reads anything I write. For 20 years — I’m my head — maybe 5 people have read anything that I wrote.
You see, the problem is that I am a pretty private person for the most part. Check my Facebook, I don’t usually post too much actual info about myself. The posts are pictures and random things. Sure, I share things with my close friends, but I choose what to share and with whom.
Growing up, my mother instilled a sense of secrecy. She would tell us what happened in the house stayed in the house. We weren’t to talk to our relatives about what was going on within our immediate family or to share with our friends what might be going on. I don’t know if this an attempt to portray a certain image of the family or just a mother trying to control her children.
Nevertheless, as much as I might have hated the idea as a child, it became ingrained as I became an adult. Most conversations are kept at the surface level — work stress, daily events, etc. Even my family members talk about how I don’t share things with them.
I don’t do this intentionally. In fact, I used to consider myself an open book until I realized that I was emotionally cut off, maybe even dead inside.
So, every month while offering a slight glimpse into my life, it raises my anxiety. I am sharing something that not many people know about me, being vulnerable and exposed and worrying how people will react freaks me out. It makes me feel bad sometimes, because of the deep, emotional posts that some of the other bloggers are writing. Usually my posts come from having a drink and biting the bullet, then just hoping for the best.
I ask that you all to be patient as I become more comfortable with sharing parts of myself. Let’s make a deal, you’ll stick with me and I promise not to bore you too much. If nothing else, my gifs will be bring the LOLs.
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Padraic Maroney hails from upstate New York, suffering from middle child syndrome. His writing career began after moving to the Philadelphia suburbs while in high school. He wrote for The Bucks County Courier Times’ Reality section, written by local teenagers, and has the distinction of writing a weekly gossip column for a college newspaper at a school he didn’t even attend! His love of pop culture led him to intern at Teen People, where he met Janis Gaudelli, and realized he could turn being a millennial into a career. Since then he’s alternated between writing and marketing, but always focused on Millennials and everything they bring to the table. Padraic is a lover of shenanigans, 80s music, and the movie “Scream.”
You can follow his additional adventures on Instagram: @padraicjacob