6.02.2015

Why I Blog... Or Don't



I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon for the past... I don't know... forever. It's not that I haven't wanted to blog, I just was busy and by the time I thought about sitting down to blog I had other things in mind. It got me thinking about why I started blogging in the first place and why I continued to blog for a few years after I initially started my blog.

When I first started my blog, it was because my sister talked me into it. She was into blogging at the time and it was a fun way to keep tabs on her cute little fam. I don't care how old you get... the younger sister will always think the older sister is the coolest and immediately needs to get a slice of her awesome ideas. Hence the conception of my blog. I jumped into the blogging world.

After a while of blogging my post started to dwindle until I finally stopped blogging. Freshman year of college rolled around and again my sister encouraged me to start blogging again. My best friend also had a blog that she used in the past and it was then that we decided we should start blogging. So we did. It became kind of our "thing". We got a kick-start by doing one of the 30 day blog challenges. I have countless memories of just hanging out on our dorm room beds blogging our little hearts out. It was a lot of fun and one of my favorite and happiest memories from freshman year.

Freshman year got me on a blogging roll and it was a hobby that I loved dearly. I was blogging for me. Strictly for me. This didn't last terribly long and soon I got sucked into the whole blogging community, which I love don't get me wrong, but it changed the reason I was blogging. I became super into others blogs, give-aways, sponsorships, page views, stats, followers, etc. I was blogging for everything except the right reasons. Yes, it was fun to throw myself completely into my blog but I wasn't doing it for the real reasons that I started blogging to begin with.

Unfortunately I've seen this with many blogs lately that I once loved. It seems that everyone is more into making money than actually producing good blog content. It's as if they've turned into nothing but an infomercial and I'm just super not into that. I feel like it's a total sham and you can pretend that you LOVE every single product and that you promise all opinions are your own but I bet that money and free stuff gives you a little push to "like" that product a little more. End rant.

After this stage I blogged because I felt obligated. Simple as that. It makes no sense at all and it's completely stupid and I wish I could explain it more but I can't. There's nothing more to it than that. I eventually stopped blogging mostly when I got busy trying to finish my two degrees, my dad got super sick, I was in the process of purchasing and moving into my first house, and I just got caught up in life.... like we all do.

And now here I am. Back at it... for now. I've graduated and I finally feel like I can start blogging again for what I see as "the right reasons". It's going to be a hobby. Strictly a fun outlet that I can put energy into and write about whatever I want. If people read it, that's great. And if not, that's cool too. I'm blogging for me now. I think it's a good way for me to express myself and it's therapeutic in a way. I'm not going to put pressure on myself about blogging a certain amount of times per week or meeting a quota or anything of that sorts. I feel like I can finally take my blog and make it something I enjoy again and be myself and I'm excited about it.