Thursday, January 15, 2009

Ode to the blog

I’ve discovered something about myself.

I love to blog.

Really. I love it. You know why? It’s one of the only things I do entirely for me. I know that’s selfish and narcissistic sounding (and at the same time makes me sound like some selfless saint, which I am not), but it’s true.

I mean, do I like comments? Of course. Who doesn't, really? (And, sidenote, if you want to reveal yourself as a reader, please, feel free to do so today. It'd be nice to know if the thousand hits I’ve gotten are mostly me, re-reading my own posts, or if there are people out there who really read what I have to say.)

But I’m not going to cry if all of a sudden the readers stop reading. I do this for me.

I think you may know by now, but if not: I like to write. Scratch that. Love to write.

And I don’t get to do enough of it. Except here. This blog made me fall in love with writing all over again.

Here I can write what I want, when I want, how I want.

Sometimes it’s lazy writing. Sometimes I edit and re-edit until the words come out just right.

Either way, I love it.

I stay really busy planning things, organizing things, designing things, and doing things for others. Plus there’s this thing called a job. And even though most of these are enjoyable to me, they’re not really for me. Do you know what I mean?

In fact, some days, I’d really like to clear my entire calendar and not do a thing. Ignore all obligations. Accomplish nothing (except maybe I would watch The Office and eat cinnamon rolls and read a good book). But since my calendar stays full and my obligations remain intact and books go unread, I blog as my getaway.

It’s kind of liberating.

Because instead of fulfilling obligations, planning Bible classes, filling my calendar, writing emails, checking Facebook: I choose to write. Whatever I want. However I want. Some might call this irresponsible. I call it saving my sanity.

When I was younger, I thought writing would be what I did all day long. Now I see why. I love to write. (I even liked writing research papers in college. Seriously.) I majored in journalism because I figured: if I want to write all day long and get paid, I’ll have to be a journalist. (Which, looking back, was good logic, but journalism died this year. Did you notice?)

So, post-college, I don’t get to write all day. But I do get to blog.

And that is something to write about.

5 comments:

jenna said...

I read your blog. :)

Question- how do you set it up where you can see how many hits you get?

Annie said...

I got my little counter-thing from www.freelogs.com. And I'm glad you read my blog. :)

Jessica said...

I guess today would be as good a day as any to unveil myself. I'm Jessica. I've been reading your blog for a few weeks. I love it. My friend, Amelia Cortez, gave me links to your blog and Jenna's (hi Jenna, I read yours too). I hope you don't mind me dropping in. You've both been a source of encouragement and inspiration to me lately. I look forward to even more! I've been piddling around with a blog of my own, but I'm still a little shy about it. Hopefully, soon I'll be ready to go public and we could be blog friends!

jenna said...

Hey Jessica! Amelia told me that she gave you our blog links!! Thanks for reading! (Sorry I haven't updated mine in a while! I hope to do that soon!!) Can't wait to read your blog!

Annie said...

Hi Jessica! I'm so glad to know you're a reader! Drop in anytime, and be sure to let me know when your blog goes public! I'd love to read what you have to say! Happy blogging!