A lot of my online blogging friends have been writing about why they blog. Their reasons are pretty similar to mine—they want to have a written account of the most important moments of their lives, they want a place to vent, they like the opportunities that arise from it.
But for me, the #1 reason why I am proud to call myself a blogger is because it provides me a way to measure my growth. My writing style, my problems, my triumphs, my desires, my goals, my mistakes. All of that is captured in this place.
I’ve been blogging since 2005, when LiveJournal was my platform of choice. A year ago, I went online looking for my first blog and couldn’t find it. Said it had been deleted. Since that was the blog I was writing when I found out I was pregnant, you understand how crushed I was that it no longer existed.
But!
But!
Yesterday, I found my blog. And to sit in 2012 and read the stuff that was going on in 2006, it is incredible.
Take this entry written in early 2006 for example:
Shoot. I had a whole post about how tired I felt, I went to touch the mouse and the whole thing deleted. Oh well. I’ll just paraphrase.
I am exhausted. Beyond belief.
I think something is wrong with me.
What I didn’t know then was that I was preggers. Could explain the exhaustion! LOL
In that blog, I wrote a lot about my fears, about having too much on my plate, about my dreams for the future. It reads like a typical 19-year-old trying to figure out the world. And I need to see that. I need to see how much I stressed about issues that resolved themselves nicely. I need to see how what seems like a big problem isn’t always a big problem. Often, they’re just complicated problems and we simply need clarity to deal with them.
And that’s why I blog. To remind myself that life is full of those moments—some crappy, some awesome, some scary, some downright delightful. Blogging keeps me grounded. Keeps me sane. Reminds that I’m a fighter. That I’ve been knocked down before but I ALWAYS get up.
Edited to add: A friend asked me why do I chose to make my life public, versus keeping all these feelings in a journal. In the beginning, though, having a blog was almost the same thing as having a journal because no one was reading it. In the early days, I’d have maybe 5 readers a month. It was my personal space. But as the site grew, I realized that I was not the only one who felt the way I did and my entries resonated with people – so I kept writing. And the site kept growing. And the initial reason I started blogging—because I felt lonely—began to melt away. I owe a big part of my triumphs to the readers of this site. On days when I was nervous about getting laid off or frustrated with grad school, knowing that I had people watching my next move, cheering me on, gave me the motivation to keep going. And that’s something you don’t get when you keep your life to yourself.
If you have a blog, tell me why you started a blog—and why you keep it going?
I have a blog because I feel like what your blog has done for me over the years can do the same for other young moms,too! I like being inspired, but I LOVE to inspire!!!
I blog because I want to inspire other women. I hope someone will have a better life because they read my blog. The things I write about are also things I struggle with (working out, etc.) so blogging is also a way to keep myself accountable for the kind of life I want to create. Sharing your truth is a powerful (and scary) thing, but it helps you and others realize that we’re not alone. There’s someone with the same dreams, the same struggles. I hope my blog will create a community of women who come from meager beginnings but are climbing their way to an abundant life. That’s why I blog…
This is very true for me too, I couldn’t have said it better.