Why blogging?

One of my closest friends is an excellent writer. I’ve hesitated to make my blog public because I compared myself to her and other great writers that I know. Which is silly because she is one of my biggest supporters. We often enjoy conversations about smarter and more effective writing. For example, she taught me the appropriate use of ‘her and I’ versus ‘her and me.’ Yes, we are nerdy like that and I wouldn’t change it.

So why blogging?

Blogging is a form of communication for me. I’ve always enjoyed writing and often feel I can express myself better in writing than I can while speaking.

Writing helps me to grow. It helps me understand where I’ve been and how far I’ve come. Even though I am telling my own personal stories, my hope is that people find it relatable, original, and motivational to your own goals. I am captivated by human connection and sharing our true selves with one another. I believe that blogging will be a tool that leads to greater conversations, new connections, and shared passions.

I started taking the first steps in a digital marketing course I took last fall. Part of the course involved designing my own website, which is how I finally moved from a desire to blog to actually doing it. The sketch shows my first attempt at bringing my ideas to life.

There are other reasons I write/blog as well.

Writing is therapeutic for me. It helps refine my thoughts and keep my memories alive. I have the worst memory. Just ask my husband. Or my coworkers.

Writing also improves my mood. It helps me to reflect and recognize all there is to be grateful for.

Additionally, writing helps me focus and clarify the ideas inside my brain. The best way I can describe it is like having too many internet tabs open at once and trying to decipher the information all at once. Writing frees up my bandwidth and prevents my “browser” from crashing.

I first remember writing in elementary, when my mom forced my brother and me to an after-school writing program. We did not want to go. But I remember enjoying it in the end and having completed a dozen different stories. I wish I could go back and read those stories. I’m sure it would be pure entertainment.

I’ve also journaled off and on over the years. I wish I could say that I write daily but I do not. Life gets in the way and writing gets pushed to the side. But I do make time for it every so often. I always feel content afterwards. And unexplainably relieved.

Professionally I’ve had the opportunity to write for the local newspaper, write white papers and manuals for my work, and in my family have become the go-to for writing resumes and cover letters.

In college, essay assignments were not difficult for me. My biggest frustration is having to meet a certain word count, which forces people to use fluff words, add extra spacing, and insert other meaningless gap-fillers.

I’d argue that writing is critical to everything that we do, both personally and professionally.

But there are many great forms of communication. In my next blog post I’ll talk about verbal communication and some of my experiences that helped to improve my interviewing, presenting, persuasiveness, and more.

Creative communication is one of my favorites, even thought I lack talent in this area. Which is why I enlisted my brother-in-law to help me create an official logo for my blog. Jonathan is a marketing extraordinaire and creative human being. He communicates through design, photography, websites, social media, and more. He took the photo of the guitarist at an advertising shoot.

In all seriousness check out his website. You’ll find some pretty sweet stuff.

I’ll also put in a shameless plug and ask that you please share my blog post and his website with anyone that may be looking for high quality photography, web or graphic design, and advertising.

By the way, I love my new logo! Jon captured everything I asked when I first described my blog to him. Plus, it is fun to make my blog feel official.

I look forward to blogging many more stories in the future.