My official 2 year blogoversary was on June 16th. I haven’t got any sort of big party planned this year, but I was thinking about my two years of blogging and realized that I’ve changed a lot in that time. Blogging changed my life in ways I never thought it would and I wanted to share them with you.
- I’m not as shy. I’m a fiercely loyal person and I consider the friends I have to be my friends for life. But I’m not very good at making friends. And I’m even worse at making small talk. When I started doing weekly memes where I had to go to blogs that I’d never visited before and leave a comment, I would agonize over leaving a 2 sentance comment. It took me forever to even think of what to say. I could only visit about 20 blogs before I would just be mentally exhausted. It took me a while to realize that the reason I was struggling was because leaving lots of comments like that is essentially small talk. Which I’ve always sucked at. But the thing that blogging allowed me to do was to sit and think before I made “small talk” which you can’t do in real life. I got to learn this skill at my own pace (which was like snail-paced, honestly). And I’ve gotten better at it over these past 2 years. I was at the store the other day sniffing colognes to buy some for my husband on Father’s Day and I found myself chatting with the other shoppers and the sales person. I didn’t say anything stupid and it felt natural and fun to me. Normally I would have just kept to myself and smiled awkwardly if anyone happened to look at me. Blogging helped me realize the importance of being kind and just talking even if I’m never going to see that person again. And I really think it’s something I might never have learned if I hadn’t started blogging.
- I go to book signings. In all honestly I had no idea that book signings existed before I started blogging. The first one I ever went to was for Matched by Ally Condie. I love going to signings now and they are one of my favorite things to blog about. I also didn’t know how many great authors live in this great state of Utah until I started going to them.
- I have a social life now (and no, I’m not talking about social media.). It’s hard sometimes to have a social life when you’re a stay-at-home mom. And let’s be honest – I’m kind of a loner and I wouldn’t notice that much if I just stayed in my house all the time. Blogging has gotten me out of the house to meet new people at events and signings. I’ve even invited friends to come along that I haven’t seen in years.
- I’m a happier mom. I struggle with the day-to-day receptiveness of being a stay-at-home mom sometimes. It’s hard to feel like I’ve accomplished anything when I’m cleaning the bathroom. Again. (Oh my gosh didn’t I just do this?) As a mom I desperately missed school. Well, not enough to actually pay money and go back, but I missed it. I realized what I really missed was the feeling like I’d accomplished things and challenged myself. Blogging helped fill that little hole for me. Maybe my dishes will never be done, but reading that book and writing that review are something I can cross off my list and they will stay done. I can read lots of different books that add variety to my life. I can challenge myself to come up with new and creative ideas for my blog. And now that there’s a little part of my life that is just for me and makes me feel accomplished, I don’t mind cleaning the bathroom. Again.
- I want to be an author someday. I majored in music at school for 2 years until I realized that I was not happy with my major. I learned a lot about myself and really stretched myself to the limit, but being a professional pianist wasn’t for me. So I majored in finance instead. Which I’m good at. But I don’t enjoy doing it enough to make a career out of it. It wasn’t until I started my blog, going to book signings, and meeting authors in real life that I realized I wanted to be an author. Meeting them helped me realize that they were real people like me (and not dead and/or up on an unreachable pedastal). Hearing authors talk about their interests and their life showed me how much I had a lot in common with them. Their advice made me realize that writing a book was an achievable goal. After blogging for 2 years, I can really see myself working on a novel every day. So now that I’m 29 years old, I know what I want to be when I grow up.
I want to hear from you. Has blogging changed you in any way? If you don’t blog, how have you changed over the last few years?


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