Why Do I Blog?

Blogger Buzz recently asked the question, "Why do you blog?" My answer has nothing that is life-changing in it. It's not like Post Secret, which has saved lives and erases the loneliness inherent in being human. But my answer is meaningful to me, my answer is as complex as my blog, my thought processes, my personality.

I started blogging back in 2009 because I was talking with my friend Max about his blog; he told me that I should record my thoughts because he thought they were worthwhile. Based on his recommendation, I started blogging, too. In the beginning, it had no direction, no theme - it was just a place to record my thoughts.

My backyard, 2009

I went through periods of activity and inactivity. In one of my more creative and feeling-inspiring moods, I thought the blog needed more direction, so I started two social experiments as a sophomore in college. Inspired, undoubtedly, by things I was reading in my classes and discussing with my peers.

I stopped shaving my legs and covered my mirrors so I wouldn't have to look at myself. I wanted to think and feel like myself, not see what other people saw me. I never cared so little about my appearance - but I have never been less vain about my appearance. The no-shave experiment lasted about four months, and the no-mirror experiment about a week. Nothing revolutionary happened, my blog did not gain a hundred thousand hits in a month, but I gained a few social insights. And realized that some intellectuals and theorists go too far: I realized and understood in a more profound way than ever before that many theories have little practical application to real life.

Albion Basin, Utah, 2009

Then, I got an internship in Madrid, Spain, and this blog suddenly had a different purpose. I shaved my legs because my mother disapproved and said that though it was fine for an American at a women's college not to shave, it would be different in Spain. Note that I could have gotten along fine; giving in was not one of my braver moments) In Spain, I used my blog as a way to keep touch with the folks back home, to hone my writing skills, and to make up for the fact that I was quite lonely. I was in a country where I didn't speak the language. Aside from my bumbling attempts at Spanish while at church, my fellow interns, and some of the language-class people, I didn't make any friends.

Madrid, Spain, 2010

Immediately after, I studied in Edinburgh, Scotland. Naturally, I continued to use this blog as the way to communicate with my family. It morphed into a public journal and repository for a lot of things I found to be interesting. It turned into a way I could promote my church. Quotes and ideas found there way onto the blog column. Have you seen how many quotations I kept in November/December while I was writing papers? My posts were fewer and shorter because I had more to keep me occupied in Edinburgh than in Madrid.

Sterling, Scotland, 2010

For the past six months, I've blogged less because I haven't been out of my element. I've been happy and content at college. Some of my thoughts may have been caught like dreams in a dream catcher, but in no way systematically.

And now, I'm in Manhattan for the summer doing another internship. I've tried to use it as a public journal and to keep my friends updated as to what I'm doing.

Roosevelt Island, Manhattan, 2011

That answers what I've done with my blog, but not why I keep it. I keep it because a blog lets me be indulge my narcissism, lets me share things I think are worth sharing. I keep a blog because it's a place to keep my thoughts - when I have them.

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona 2010

So here we are, back at the beginning. This blog has no point or theme other than to be a repository for what I'm doing and thinking, possibly to help the stray who comes across what I write, and to expand and change as my needs expand and change. I will always need writing, and I will need to share what I write - do - am - so congratulations, spoony driftwood, it looks like you'll be in business for a while yet.