Friday, June 21, 2013

Purpose

I have a girlfriend who has a blog with a purpose. She loves to travel, and she loves to do it often. She likes to stay at nice places and do nice things. She likes to do those things and stay at those places and not always pay those prices. So she tries to do those things and stay at those places and not pay those prices and then blogs about it. She’s a good writer, and I enjoy her blog.

We were discussing blogs one night over tacos and margaritas. She asked what the purpose was of my blog. I couldn’t give her much of a straight answer. Finally I told her that it started as a way to give updates and pictures to family and friends (which I found out was not true. To quote my first blog entry, “I'm really just doing it so I can stop posting as anonymous on other people's blogs.”) about six years ago when we lived in Dallas. Then when John passed the Foreign Service Exam it also became about our adventure getting into the FS. And now it’s just about what ever I want it to be about.

I do wish that I had a fancy blog, that I updated daily, and had a big following. Things get in the way of that though…my laziness being the biggest thing. In the morning I’ll think, “maybe I’ll blog today!” Then later I’m all:

I’ve thought about carving out an hour a day to sit down and write. I did do a year of school last year, and one semester I did English. There were some good ideas in class about writing, and how to get topics to write about. Sure, they were talking about academic papers, but I don’t see why I couldn’t use those ideas to figure out what to write about. I digress.

I look at some of the fancy blogs that I know and love and wonder what it’s like to be known for your blog (quoted in the big papers, famous in the Foreign Service blogosphere, etc). I’ve always wanted to be famous, this could be a way to fame for me, right?

Well, sure! If I had a fancy blog that I updated more and some kind of niche to fill.

I got an invitation in my email this morning for Bloggy Conference this September. It would be the perfect conference to find out how to make my blog a hit blog. How to make myself famous! The tickets are only $73 for the whole conference! Alas, it’s in Sandusky, OH. Just a quick check on Expedia shows that the cheapest plane ticket right now is $1,345, raising the cost from $73 to way more than I’m willing to pay, and that isn’t including hotel and food and all the shopping that I would do if I was in the States.

So maybe I’ll start updating more often (not likely), and maybe I’ll fancy up my blog (probably not), but I’ll be happy with what I have right now. Because it’s better than nothing.

4 comments:

Allison said...

Sometimes I feel like that too! I'm not a great writer. I'm not a great photographer. I don't even think my family reads my blog all that often anymore but I keep doing it

Shannon said...

I'm not sure of the purpose of my blog either. Perhaps it is simply a way for me to maintain my sanity.

When I visited Naoma and Alexandria in Kenya we talked about our blogs and Naoma asked which were my favorite blog posts and without thinking I blurted out "The ones where I vent." she seemed taken aback and I think I was too.

But you know so often at posts when everything is really going wrong, a lot of people at post are not especially sympathetic, and you can't just call home to vent about it because somehow everyone thinks this life style is all glamorous balls, having staff do everything, and going on trips to exotic locations. When I vent on the blog I can usually let go of the problem, and it stops me from whining to my poor husband about the same thing over and over again.

AJ said...

Your blog should be about how we are soul mates who are obsessed with 30 rock. What the!? It was meant to be. On a more serious note, The Allison Show and Say Yes To Hoboken have online (sometimes free) classes on how to have direction and pick up traffic for your blog. Good luck. Lets play soon.

Sara said...

Allison, It's very cathartic. I totally understand. Also some of it will be good to look back on.

Shannon, As Jill says, "it's cheaper than therapy." I think it's important to be able to vent on our blogs. It can help dispel the views they have of our lives as well as be therapeutic to us.

AJ, I do think we should play soon. Do you have time before you leave?