See Me Blog

Lizza

I’ve always loved reading and writing, and I’ve been doing both a lot since I was a kid. I started keeping a diary when I was a teenager and when the Internet came along it was just natural for me to go from paper to digital – a relief, actually, since my handwriting never won me any awards and even I sometimes have trouble reading it.

My initial attempts at blogging were hiccup-y; I’d write something, post it, and delete it. Last year I started one on MySpace. (I know, what could I have been thinking?) Then through work that I do with my friend and business partner, Victor, on Expat Interviews, I made the online acquaintance of a Canadian lady living in the UAE. It turned out she couldn’t access my MySpace blog (it was one of the sites her ISP bans) so I started one on Blogger. The MySpace account is dead but my Blogger journal lives on.

In the beginning she was my only reader. Then as the months passed one reader became five then a dozen. People have come and gone, but a few have stayed on, bless their suffering souls. Some say they found my site through the Next Blog button, others through sites like Bestest Blogger of the Day, BlogBlast for Peace, and The Rising Blogger; some came via other bloggers.

I’ve found some great blogs via these avenues too – and made some amazing friends online. Mine is a personal site, not a business site. Its primary function was and is to be a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I write about silly stuff, sometimes it’s about an aspect of life here in the Philippines, sometimes I spew when I’m feeling blue and angst-y, sometimes I write about family. I do it simply because I want to write about it, nothing less, nothing more. I won’t deny, though, that I love it when people say they like a certain post, or what I wrote on a certain day resonated with them, or when I find that somebody has linked to me without telling me – that’s always a nice surprise. I should mention that I don’t like it when bloggers exhibit this “I linked to you, so link to me too” attitude. The people in my blogroll are there because I like their blogs, not because they asked to be placed there.

Blogging is not only fun. It can also be cathartic. It’s an outlet for whatever creativity is brewing in me. It’s a personal endeavor that’s a gratifying part of my normal life, just like eating or sleeping or playing. Right now I don’t feel the need to promote my blog through aggregate sites. Getting good traffic is great, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t ever want to reach that point where getting more comments and awards and higher search engine rankings will eclipse the reason why I started blogging publicly in the first place: to write what I want to write about, not what I think others want to read. Having readers come and return is the icing on the cake, and they’re non-fattening!

Reading other blogs, though, has greatly influenced my way of thinking and the topics I write about sometimes. Also, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve learned something new from what someone else wrote. A certain writer will have a post that makes me think, so I’ll blog about that topic too and mention that I got the idea from him or her. All of us probably agree that blogging is a great way to share information, and one of the ways I like to share is to mention every Saturday a handful of blog entries written by others during that particular week.

There is a great number of terrific blogs out there: they’ve made me laugh hilariously, they’ve made me teary-eyed, they’ve left me breathless by the way they’re written, they’ve made me marvel at their visual creativity – these are some of the characteristics of blog posts I share with regular readers and passers-by on weekends. People have said they like my Blogworld Saturdays feature because it leads them to blogs they otherwise wouldn’t have known about, and that’s gratifying to know. What they don’t realize is it’s a way to turn them into blogging addicts like me, haha! I jest – sort of.

The comments section is another enjoyable part of the blogging experience. Sometimes the comments I get are much more interesting than the post itself! Reading comments can be both entertaining and enlightening. (I’ve also found a few blogs through comments left on other blogs – sometimes they intrigue me enough to want to know more about that person’s writings, and before I know it, presto! I’ve become the fan of another blogger.) Reading a post and leaving a comment is a good thing to do, but please, at least scan the post first before you say something! Reading something that’s totally unrelated to the post can make a person feel like he or she is on the receiving end of a wrong number.

The Internet is adding another dimension to how people learn and interact. Like it or not, it’s here to stay as a way for individuals to hear and be heard. Through blogging I’ve come across quite a few terrific people both near and far. It’s probably true that I will never meet these people personally, but that doesn’t mean I don’t cherish “meeting” them online. I do, and I look forward to meeting more and learning from them.