A lot of my friends ask me how I would feel safe with so much of myself on the web. I’ve always been out in the open. I have few personal boundaries. So few, if you happen to be staying with me on a Sunday morning you might see me naked. You would cringe but I would still stand in the kitchen making my coffee staring at the morning traffic and not notice you frantic trying to cover your eyes against the train wreck that resembles my thighs. That’s just how it goes; I consider my blog the anti-stalker, the anti-gossip colum or the "ibetyouwishyouneverlookedthere" magazine.

I use my real name and you could find out all sorts of information about me just by spending some quality time in my archives. If a over curious person or potential employer wanted to know something it’s all there and they wouldn’t have to spend any time digging through my mail or sitting outside my house. I refuse to live in fear or hide behind anonymity because that’s not how I want to live my life. I started my blog because I have a story to tell and I wanted people to know the unlikely source of these stories. I try never to blog about work or co-workers because although I would like to keep my job; I’m also more than my job. Not that the nature of my work is top secret but I don’t think my employer would like everyone to know that my favorite past time is lying on the floor drinking bourbon. I can see an employee of the month nomination in my future.

This same philosophy would apply to gossip. What if every celebrity started keeping a blog and outlining their sexual partners, drug taken over the weekend and their “About me” pages had a 100 things list of their deepest darkest secrets that The Enquirer is bound to find out. Or does this type of medium just breed another type of gossip columnist. Sites like Perez Hilton and, Go Fug Yourselfare celebrity gossip sites but, are they any different than Star magazine? Do you really need your up-to-the-minute celebrity gossip? Not that I’m saying I will every be popular enough for a gossip columnist or worse, the paparazzi but I’m wonder if this sort of openness would nip it in the bud before it started.

More than anything I refuse to live in fear. Just like with terrorism, I'm not going to cancel a trip or dig a bomb shelter and wait for the world to end. I do find that it is important to have “good role models” in this open adventure of mine. I’m not talking about trying to teach you how to make cocktails and roll cigarettes with one hand. I’m talking about not letting fear win out over my ability to live my life and make my dreams come true; this includes the internet. If I chose this route in the past, I never would have discovered Xanax and traveled to six countries. I also would have never written a word, fallen in love, given birth, divorced, returned to school or embraced my inner rock-star. I respect and appreciate those who must be anonymous because sometimes it’s just a fact of life with the invention of the internet.

Contributing Editor Chantel Williams also blogs at Life and Times of Chantel.