I’ve had this blog going for over 18 months now, or some
amount of time like that. It’s served many different purposes. For me, it has
often served as a healthy method to let my thoughts out and to reflect upon
something that’s been on my mind for a while. I’ve had others tell me that they
get something out of reading my blog posts, which is really nice. This post
will focus more on what gets me to blog, or more like what doesn’t get me to blog even
when I have something on my mind.
Not only do I blog on occasion, I very much enjoy reading my
friends’ blogs as well. Many of them have had blogs, or have blogged before,
whether they be personal blogs or ones set up for something like study abroad
or whatnot. As a reader, there’s a lot I gain from reading about my friends’
experiences in that type of form. It allows me to keep up with those I haven’t
been in contact with but I also learn things myself from reading about their
experiences. Combined, reading my friends’ blogs when I can allow me to gain a
lot from the effort they put in to talk about their lives and experiences.
I’ve had multiple occasions where I've struggled to find the motivation to sit down and blog while I've had this going. Like times where I’ve had something on my mind,
but then stopped myself from blogging or didn’t make the time to sit down and
blog. To be perfectly honest, one of the reasons I struggle with finding motivation to sit down
to blog is this: self-consciousness. If you were to ask me, chances are I’d
tell you my life doesn’t feel that interesting. I mean I work full-time, I do a
little volunteering, and…yeah. I’m not living in a giant, major tourist city or
in a whole different culture or anything like that. So the question I often ask
myself internally is this: “What do I really have to share?” That’s happened to
me before where I think about writing something and stop myself because I don’t
feel like people will get very much out of it or even think others would find
it that interesting. I mean of course my own experience is my own unique
experience, but that whole self-comparison thing gets in the way and makes it
feel like I don’t really have much to blog about and share relative to a lot of
my other friends.
I try to battle those perceptions because I know the notion
that “I having nothing to share” isn’t true. I’ve had experiences when I’ve
blogged before and people either enjoyed it or really needed to read what I
wrote. In addition, blogging has been self-therapeutic for me on multiple
occasions.
My ultimate goal when I blog is this: “If one person gets
something out of my blogging, then it’s absolutely worth it.” I do genuinely
hope that what I write can have a positive impact on at least one person.
Sometimes it’s just difficult to see and know that I did positively affect that
“one person” through my blog posting and sometimes, I lose sight of that goal
and think that I need to have multiple people like it or think what matters is
the number of people that read.
I’ve wanted to get this out in the open for a while so I
feel better that I made the time to write this. Though it’s worth noting that
being on a 4 hour flight makes it easier to find that time ;) .
