Why Blogging?

It was about this time a year ago that my longtime friend, Emily, had her baby, Caleb. She started a blog to share Caleb's arrival and all his firsts with her friends and family. My mom passed the link on to me to check out. I might be an almost Gen Y'er, but I had no idea that anyone and everyone could just open up a free blog for all the world to see. It seemed like a really cool thing to do if you had something to say that people might be interested in.

I kept checking in on Emily and her new family and eventually followed some of the links to her friends' blogs on her blogroll. And from there, I was hooked. I can't tell you how in the world I ended up at some of the blogs I now visit on a regular basis. I visit blogs about weight loss, a new mom to quads blog, blogs to help me be a better entertainer, blogs about TV shows, and Beth Moore's blog. (I had never even heard of Beth Moore until I read about her in a blog - I know I'm a bad Bible studier). I even read a few blog entries from a woman who photographed her outfit everyday and told her reader the details of everything she had on from her mascara to her shoes. That one got old pretty fast.

I read a lot of different kind of blogs, but they're all well-written, engaging, and told by good people. I don't want to read about crazy things bad people do. If I'm going to spend time in blogland I want it to teach me something I didn't know or build me up.

I started this, my own blog, about a year ago, but I wasn't very good at it. I didn't have anything overly witty to say and my life was (is) not that interesting to perfect strangers. (Which Brian would say is a very good thing). I'd randomly post now and then, but I didn't even tell anyone about the blog for a while, and then I only told Brian, my mom and my sister. I took a few months off from my blog during the summer, but I kept reading everyone else's blogs. I realized I liked the sense of community these regular bloggers had, but I felt like I was kind of spying on friendships.

I jumped back in to my blog in September and have been telling more and more people about it. I've started commenting on other people's blogs even though they don't know me from Adam. It made me nervous at first - like the girl in 6th grade who moves to a new school and tries to make friends. But it's been fun, and I was silly to be nervous. I don't think one can completely fail at blogging. I never wanted to be a writer or anything, but I always thought I was decent so it's been fun for me to tell stories on here and let y'all see a glimpse of my daily life and who I am.

I don't have any other close real-life friends who blog, at least that I know about, but I've been trying to talk them in to it. I'd love to see Ally's blog. She could write about wonderful books and drives through New England. Mom could write about houses and all those architecture words I don't know. Bill could post his columns. (And he's a real writer so I'm sure it'd be wonderful)! Kels could tell us about her crazy teachers at design school. I'd love to know about life in DC from Jess and Julie. So come on in! It's fun, I promise! But I'm not at all responsible for the hours you'll spend reading everyone else's blogs!