August 1, 2016

So Why Do I Blog?

I really let the blog go last week. I'm not sure why. And then I asked myself Why do I blog? I rarely take blogging breaks but, this past week, I only posted twice and it was because I was feeling the stress and anxiety of situations, and blogging (i.e. publicly writing about things) is really difficult for me when I feel unsettled.

An example: I hate going to the airport. I just don't like it. Since I've been following a high-protein, low-carb, no junk diet lately, I haven't had candy. On the day I went to the airport last week, I stress-ate some Twizzlers (they were good, by the way, so no regrets there). On days I feel that way, days I'm just trying to get through the day, I don't really need to be blogging,  you know? (It's worth mentioning that these days really only happen when Scott's away...being responsible for everything is hard.)

I'm very careful about what I post online and it's a craft, really, to create profiles and writings in a public forum.

Another example: I've sent Scott many pictures lately of things I've been doing. He posted some of them to his own Facebook page and I had a momentary internal freak-out.

Look. This is me, taking the dogs to school, so I can work on my classroom. My sign needs to be touched up, there's a GARBAGE can in the picture, and a random thing of Clorox wipes (those desks don't clean themselves; I clean them). Plus, the dogs aren't even engaged in the picture-taking. This was just Hey, this is what I'm doing today and here's a picture. I wouldn't have posted it online. But he did, with a nice little caption. And I do appreciate that he cares enough to do so.


But whatever, right? It's real life. 

I probably would've shown you this instead, if I were going to document the experience.



Jett on a pile of trimmer. 

And example #3:

I went hiking with some friends the other day. They took all the pictures with their phones and posted them to social media on the spot. I didn't even see what the pictures looked like until I got home, 4 hours later. That's pretty stressful in its own right, correct?


A rare photo of other people on this blog. 

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So, anyway, those are just a few examples of why I feel the need to lay low if I feel stress. Some people take to social media with all of their thoughts and feelings, I keep them to myself and pop back in when I've somewhat resolved things.

Back to Why do I blog?....

This blog has seen 3 different blog names and 2 URLs. It's seen 3 states, 4 "hometowns", 4 houses, 4 jobs, 3 deployments, multiple highs, many frustrations and struggles, and so on. It's a literal record of my adult life.

But, again, truthfully, I do know why I blog. It's my record of my adult life. It chronicles everything.
I started it about one year into being married and that was one year into being an army wife. I remember the months we dated and the months we were engaged and the months of that first deployment and the months after very well. Shockingly well, even. However, once I started this blog, I started recording things. It's more than just pictures...it's stories, happenings, likes, dislikes...it's literally my life. It's recorded things that I never would've written down or made note of otherwise.

So that's why I blog. That's why I'll continue to blog. Even if no one reads it, I will keep going because not everyone has a record of their life online in this way. Not everyone can go back to mid-deployment 2012 and read about what was happening.

In short, I think I've been busy thinking and that's why I haven't been blogging.

Oh, and can we just say Praise the Lord that it's August? Also, Happy Monday, per usual.

Why do YOU blog?

13 comments:

  1. I stopped blogging about a year ago because I couldn't keep up and honestly, didn't have the interest anymore. I only read a few select blogs now. I just had to let it go slowly. It was a great season in my life and I'll probably start again at some point.

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  2. I blog as a creative outlet. I blog to let out some of the 2,357,895 thoughts I have in my head. :)

    PS Glad you're happy to see August. I, on the other hand, am in mourning... LOL!

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  3. I vacillate between wanting to document my adult life and knowing that no one cares because personal blogs aren't cool and pinnable so why not just keep things to myself? But honestly I'm really bummed that I have barely posted anything that has happened in 2016 (and lots is happening!) so I need to just do it again, for me.

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  4. Happy August!!

    I stopped blogging a year and a half ago because I got sick of a lot of the stuff surrounding blogging...the cliques, the politics, the constant having to filter myself so I didn't offend one person or another, the worrying that someone in town was going to find it...even after promising myself I wasn't going to worry about those things anymore, it was really hard. I still miss blogging sometimes but then I remember how stressful it was a lot of the time and that's what always stops me from starting again. I still think about it a lot though.

    I will be sad if YOU ever stop blogging because I like reading!!

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  5. Blogging has been such a huge part of my life for 8 years and I couldn't imagine not doing it. I am so grateful for the friendships I have made along the way.

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    1. Indeed! The relationships are worth the effort!

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  6. I blog for myself. In some ways it's an online journal, but I don't blog about personal stuff like I used to. Partly because it's stuff I'm not comfortable sharing and for some reason I've gotten away from it. I need to get a bit more personal though I think. I'm trying to get back to that. I tend to follow blogs that are more personal though.

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    1. That's very true. I've gotten away from personal stuff in some regards but that's what makes a blog something I want to read every day. Too personal, we all know, is not good though.

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  7. That's just it - I love to blog for memories sake - documentation. I forget yesterday, much less 10 years ago. Timehop & my blog are life savers.

    (That picture of the guy behind bending forward... made me laugh) :)

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  8. I whole-heartedly support your reason for blogging. I think that is a fantastic reason. Am I wrong that I actually really like the picture that you sent Scott, then he posted, of the dogs at school? Just like you said, it feels "real"...authentic...and I like that.

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  9. I go back and forth on it all. I started blogging to chronicle newlywed adventures, then someone wanted to pay me to write a recipe, which turned my blog into a (very) small side business....but I missed the real posts, but then I worry about 'real life' photos, like you do...but I love looking back on those real posts. P.S. Taking care of adult things alone is never fun!

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  10. Happy August. I'm in denial that it's there, though, I have to say. I normally have everything ready to go at school, and this year, I have no desire to go work on my room. I guess I better get out of THAT funk pretty quickly... ;-P

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  11. i think that is exactly why i blog as well. i love the people i've 'met' and i also just love having a place to talk about every mundane and exciting thing in my life. i have no one i can talk to about EVERYTHING. KC is great but he gets bored when i talk about shopping or whatever. my friends are great, but they don't like to read. you know? so i love that i have this one thing i can do everything with. i still keep a lot to myself, but still. i like being able to share little things and look back on it and think wow, i'd forgotten this or that or oh yeah i remember how i felt then.
    all that being said, when i am feeling unsettled or something is going on in my life, i step back. i don't want to be fake, i don't want people to be all nice and happy when i'm not feeling that way, and i don't want pity when there isn't actually anything wrong, you know? gotta do you.

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