why i blog and why YOU should too...

Last year when I saw the dermatologist, Chuck and I were sitting in the waiting room as I filled out the 'new patient' paperwork when I got stuck on the question asking for my hobbies. 

[Naturally, I refrained from responding 'rotting my brain watching TV and checking people.com and facebook' because, well, one wants to maintain some mystery in a relationship where one person is going to be examining the other person's entire body looking for weird moles... and also that sounds like a hobby that would elicit a lecture from any sort of doctor.]

I used to get stuck on this question a lot growing up, too; I don't play an instrument or sew/knit/crochet or collect anything. I do love to read, but if you tell people that then they assume you're well-read. I'm honestly not. I love to read the same three book series over and over. Why get attached to new characters and stories when I can just relive Anne Shirley's journey??

I ended up consulting Chuck, who promptly replied, "Blogging. And jogging." 

[Which naturally led to some brainstorming about what other -ogging type activities I could take up. Clogging? I actually have friends that teach it. But no. Flogging? Well, I'm not a pirate or a proponent of corporal punishment, so probably not. Hogging? Is that even the right word for someone who raises hogs? I guess it doesn't realllly matter since I will never be one...]

BUT the point is that I love blogging, which makes sense as it combines two of my favorite activities: writing and oversharing. 

I've always loved writing, particularly journalism. I used to make up little family newspapers and teamed up with my best friend to create "The Sixth Grade Press" as an eleven-year-old. I was very involved in journalism during junior high and high school and chose communication as my major in college. I. Love. Writing.  

I've also always loved oversharing and overdocumenting. Ask my poor mom, I have distinct memories of coming home every day from school and recounting my day for her in painstaking detail, class period by class period. I have a tote full of journals from 1996ish until 2002ish, many with daily entries - the early ones including a detailed description of what I wore that day. Not even joking. Down to (up to?) the earrings. In high school I spent a sad amount of my babysitting/tutoring money on those ridiculous disposable cameras, and then even more money getting them developed. I'm not sure how many pictures I thought we'd eventually need of our cats/dog/Quinn making weird faces, but rest assured that we've got LOTS!

So blogging is perfect for me - I'd be subjecting my closest family and friends to daily/weekly/monthly recaps of my boring life anyways, and I would be toting my camera everywhere and taking a gazillion pictures anyways, so I might as well record it all here on the blog and claim 'family history! journaling! obeying the prophet!' when I work on a post instead of the laundry :). 

It really is true that my primary motivation is recording our immensely exciting lives for future reminiscing (which we honestly already do - Chuck and I both find ourselves scrolling through old posts pretty frequently). 

This brings me to reason #1 why YOU should blog: future reminiscing!! 

You didn't know this was going to turn in to a persuasive post to get you to blog (at all/more frequently/whatever), did you?

But seriously, at some point in the future, you're going to want to remember something about your life right now. Possibly lots of things. Even if there are some things in your life right now that you are absolutely certain you will never want to remember, just skip over those things or refer to them vaguely and then you'll only be reminded of them enough to be glad that they're over!

Sooo jot something down. Post a bunch of pictures. Post one picture. Write down a story - funny, compelling, sad, embarrassing. Recap one recent holiday or event. 

Don't put loads of pressure on yourself to 'catch up' with blogging. That sounds suuuper overwhelming and like a chore. Don't put loads of pressure on yourself to post every day. Or every other day. Or seven times a month. Just figure out what works for you - hammering out twelve posts in one day? Awesome. Posting once a week, on Sunday evenings after you put the kids to bed? Perfect. Every morning? Go for it. Once every couple of months when the mood strikes? Sounds like a plan.

ALSO, don't put loads of pressure to make your blog just like your friend's/sister's/cousin's/stranger's-you-blog-stalk. Your kids aren't going to want to read someone else's blog in twenty years, they're going to want to read yours. Your style, your voice, your stories. This can be tricky, especially if you have that one friend who's gorgeous and witty and has darling kids and a knack for blogging and you sometimes feel like what you have to offer doesn't measure up. I have that friend, her name is Jayna. BUT, blogging doesn't need to be yet another medium for us to compare ourselves or try to be just like someone else. Enjoy other blogs, comment lots, and then make your blog your own. It'll be much, much more fun and easier to keep up on and make for a more diverse blogger-dom.

That reminds me of reason #2 why you should blog: the social aspect. Blogging for your future grandkids is nice, but doesn't really yield the kind of immediate gratification that we've all come to depend on. This is where fellow bloggers and comments come in. I LOVE getting to know people better through their blogs. I love how they help develop new friendships and maintain old friendships. I think blogging can be particularly useful when our busy lives or geographical distance or staying at home with small children make us feel isolated. Blogging can be a great resource for connecting with those whom we wouldn't otherwise be able to very easily.  I have two friends from a college math class that have both moved away and although we stay in touch via facebook, their blogs give me a much closer look into their lives.

The difficulty is not become too caught up with the social aspect that you let it dictate your blogging frequency. Comments are super fun, but shouldn't carry that much weight - posts that don't garner lots of feedback are still serving a purpose in memorializing that picture/experience/story. BUT I will also promise to be a very faithful commenter if you promise to blog, because that's how much I need middle of the night reading material when I'm up with my 15-month-old baby who thinks he's my 15-week-old baby.

So, let's summarize:
* start a blog. if you already have one, start/keep posting
* post whatever you want, whenever you want, however often you want
* don't try to make your blog just like someone else's. you'll get frustrated and quit. make it YOURS.
* comment on other people's blogs. 
* tell me about your blog. i'll comment on it. sometimes wittily. often boringly.
* keep blogging even if you don't get lots of comments. remember why you're blogging.

Okay, that's all I got. Off to contemplate picking up 'logging'...