May 1, 2016

Blog Every Day In May: A Blogging Challenge

When I think about the blogs I love to read, they're blogs that capture the everyday details. Blogs that are kind of mundane really.  It's why I've been writing Currently posts for the last two months. I want to capture the everyday. That's what's interesting to me about blogs. Extra-meaningful posts are great, but that gets too heavy sometimes. I want to read nothingness because it just makes me happy. Some people watch reality t.v. (uh, sometimes I do too) and I like to read reality.

I started blogging to share life with the family we don't live close to. Family and friends always say they've read something on my blog that I've, quite honestly, forgotten that I'd written. And sometimes there's a moment of sheer panic and I think Uh, what did you see? 

And oftentimes, when I write semi-serious posts, that's not stuff I ever really say out loud; it just seems self-indulgent to hold someone hostage on the phone or in person, trying to explain how and why you chose your word for the year. I mean, holy eye roll. No one cares. Which is why I put it here. People can read what they choose to read and then silently judge me from afar if they so choose. It's like those long-complaining Facebook posts that scream of self-indulgence; those people need a blog.

I rarely share my blog with anyone I actually know. A few people read it, but I usually prefer to keep it separate from real life. I share at least 80% of real life on my blog, but I share my blog, maybe, 5% of the time with real life. It's a fine line.

All of this to say that I plan on blogging each day in May. That's right. EVERY DAY for 31 DAYS in a row. I bet you're wondering where the writing prompts are for this challenge.  Uh, there aren't any. I don't really have a plan. But what I learned about a year ago was that having a plan usually is setting myself up to fail. I overdo it much too easily. I tighten and then fail. There's no need to overthink things. So, outfits, house stuff, dog stuff, workouts, what I'm watching, what I'm reading, maybe even a recipe(!)...just life in general because I think the little posts about nothing actually tell the world the most about us. Less curation is my goal.

I'm just throwing this out there* in case you're interested in joining me. May can be a busy month, but since I'm not packing up a classroom and I'm staring down several more months of deployment, I suppose I might as well.  Look...I even made a graphic. Fun, right?


*I was supposed to post this last week in case anyone wanted to *plan* to join me. I obviously didn't meet that inner expectation. An example of plans going awry and all that.