I knew this day would come. I knew I would eventually return to the habit of spewing ideas and divulging emotions on the internet. I am too self-absorbed and introspective to do otherwise.
Plus, blogging is cool. Mmhmm. But let the record show: I started my first blog when I was fourteen, before it was all the rage. Actually, it was probably popular then but I didn’t know it because I wasn’t one of the cool kids; so I thought I had made a great discovery or something.
I opened a Xanga account at the very end of eighth grade. It was only a few weeks later that I would be returning to the Thin Country (that is, Chile). I wanted to have a place in which I could chronicle my high school years and thereby allow my friends in California to read about my adventures; but it really just became a place in which I formed virtual “friendships” with other bloggers. Eventually, I convinced friends of mine in high school to join the world of Xanga and for a brief span of time, our world of Xanga was quite, quite cool. But it died down and none of us really write on our Xangas anymore (Facebook is now much, much cooler). I tried keeping up with my blog during my freshman year of college but posts became rather sporadic after that. And for some reason, I have decided to return to the land of online journaling as I enter into the spring of my junior year.
I truly enjoy writing. I always have. And I like my writing to be read on occasion, which makes blogging a most suitable outlet. Some of the feedback I received from certain Xanga entries gave me tremendous confidence as a writer. Other entries received little attention but remain invaluable to me, reviving my present memory, filling it with images and emotions that would have otherwise been forgotten. Photographs and journals have been instrumental in reminding me where I am from and occasionally seem to whisper hints of where I might be going.
Blogging is also communal by nature. Reading the words of others, whether they are those of friends or strangers, helps me catch a glimpse of where other individuals have been, where they are, and where they might be going. Online exchanges of written words lack the flesh and bones of face-to-face conversations, but they are not completely shallow.
And maybe, just maybe, they are not entirely narcissistic either.
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Yay!!! You're on blogger now!!!
ReplyDeleteYou've been hyperlinked on my site, just so you know... so it's easier for me to read your awesome entries! Truly, I have missed your blogs. Xanga just became way too hard to keep up with. I post stuff on Facebook, but I always double it onto my blog. Recently it's all been poetry... I kind of like that form of expression and I might stick to it for a while.
Anyways... cool to see you on Blogger and we should chat on FB sometime!!! Or look me up and come visit (lol)! Seriously, though... Well, we'll be in touch!
my lovely roommate and friend,
ReplyDeletei am eager and curious for all your blog will entail in the days, weeks and months to come.
you, be you...and that will always be sufficient.
write. write even when you don't want to, and you may be surprised as what you read back to yourself.
you are an inspiration.
ny
As it is proper blogger etiquette to return a comment when one has made a comment on the other's blog, here I am!
ReplyDeleteI share similar sentiments. I've been blogging - consistently - since I was 13. It is one of the best decisions I've ever made. And it's even better when we try to be intentional about writing, whether for others, or mostly for ourselves, because we can always look back on them later. Something about doing it through this medium that sets it apart from handwritten journals. Maybe because this is neater. Maybe because typing is an easier way for our fingers to keep up with all the wonderful crazy thoughts in our heads. Writing by hand also just takes longer.
I appreciate my blogs more and more through the years. But it is funny. As some people perhaps were just born writers, the same could be said about bloggers. Not everyone, by nature, by heart is a blogger. That is not to say they cannot become with some intention and practice.
I'm rambling. Another joy about blogging.
Narcissism at its finest.