I am writing this post as an entry into Mabel’s Labels 2009 Blogher Contest. They have a very generous grand prize of a fully-paid trip to Blogher ’09 – you can check it out here. Thank you, Mabel’s Labels!!
A year ago, I hardly knew what a blog was.
Today, I spend most of my waking moments thinking in the language “bloggy”.
My thoughts are filled with completely obsessive-compulsive analytical engineering of future blogs:
Blogging has revolutionized my life.
When I left my fast-paced, self-important, relationally-oriented job to be a stay at home Mom, it was a hard transition. I fully expected to just be a “natural Mom”, but I found that to be far from reality. Although I knew the ultimate and complete importance of my new role, being alone at home all day long with a non-communicative baby made me especially miss the human interaction of my old life.
I felt lonely, as if I was missing out, and no longer important.
When I discovered blogging, I discovered a whole new way to fulfill my needs for friends, interaction, encouragement, affirmation, and sharing life. It has helped me reconnect with friends, make new friends, and become closer to people that I have known all my life but have never had the occasion to get to know. I have so many more rich relationships than my pre-blogging days!
But it has changed my life in so many other ways as well.
It has made me more of an extrovert. Or at least a virtual extrovert. I am so much less awkward on the internet than in real life!!!
For instance, I have discovered my sense of humor. I have always been aware of my horribly bumbling delivery of jokes. You know, that feeling that you just said something that would have been funny were it not delivered by a complete geek. But by subtracting out my delivery, I have discovered that I really am funny, I just can’t tell my funnies. But write about them? Sure!! All day long!
It has also given me a real, bona fide hobby. I never knew what to put on questionnaires when I came to that dreaded line: “hobbies and interests”. It made me feel like a total bore with no life.
And, most importantly, it has given me an awesome way to journal our family’s life: something I’ve always wanted to do but could never seem to make happen.
No more guilt about what I’m missing remembering!
I look back at old posts and think, “I would have already forgotten that were it not for the fact that I blogged about it!”. It is so amazing to think that I have preserved our life in such an impactful way.
The truly awesome thing about blogging, though, is the potential to touch many other people’s lives in an impactful way. Everything that I listed above is what blogging has done for me. However, the benefits do not stop there.
My blogging benefits my out-of-town family, who can’t wait for the next installment about their precious Ali.
My blogging will benefit Ali, because I have captured her childhood in such a powerful and meaningful way. I cannot tell you how much I would pay to be able to recount every day of my childhood like this. I can’t wait to share it with her.
And hopefully, my blogging benefits my readers, by entertaining them and giving them someone to relate to that goes through the same struggles and triumphs that they do.
I am always recommending blogging to people because of the amazing benefits that I and others appreciate on a daily basis.
You’re a GREAT blogger!!! :)
I agree with amanda. You are a wonderful blogger. You keep me entertained. :)
You hit the nail on the head with why you blog and how it makes you feel. I love my “bloggy friends” as though I know them in person. It really does open up a whole ‘nother world!
I think a lot of bloggers out there share these same thoughts. Blogging really does open an entire new world.