What Blogging Means to Me
What does Blogging mean to you? That is a question I’ve been contemplating for a while now, along with many other. The other big one that I was thinking about just at the New Year:
Are you where you thought you’d be 10 years ago?
I posed that question to a couple people and they posed it back to me. My answer both times (please don’t be offended!) Hell NO.
There are things that are way better than I ever imagined and there are things that are no where near like I ever planned.
I wish I had a list of goals and places I saw myself 10 years ago, but I’m really not sure such a list exists. 10 years ago I was 19 and I pretty much had the world at my finger tips. I could be anything I wanted, go anywhere I wanted, do anything I wanted. Truthfully I could do that now, but I’d be dragging people with me and so it makes it a little more difficult to just pack up and move without a care in the world.
At 19 years old I was a Sophomore in college working on my Agriculture Education degree. One major goal I had at the time was to earn my American FFA degree in honor of my dad, but also for my sake too, which I did. I ran in queen pageants where when I didn’t win I was still voted Miss Congeniality. Yes, I’ll tell you I’m shy and awkward in certain situations but I tried to go out of my way and make everyone feel important and special in those few queen contests I chose to run in.
I went to Costa Rica and did a study abroad in the Agriculture department. I showed horses. I showed sheep. I knew no boundaries, well other than if you didn’t turn your work in or take tests in college you didn’t pass the class :). I even had to pull a few overnighters to get homework done, but the point is, I didn’t know any boundaries.
My dad used to tell me I wasn’t scared of anything, but somewhere in there I became scared. Scared of what I’m not sure, but my dad was right. My dad is a really wise man I’ll tell ya!
Not long after I started dating my husband I stumbled across a friend from college’s blog. I had no friggin clue what a blog was, but the morning he started his and posted about it on facebook, I signed up and created my own. Truthfully, that right there was the first step to breaking out of my scaredness. I still have days where I wonder if you guys will like me or if I will offend someone or someone tells me I should take a blog post down because it is way to controversial, etc., but that right there was a big step into getting rid of the scared.
I sure hope that 2013 is my year. We all say that and sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Maybe that’s just luck of the draw, I’m not really sure. But my blog is mine. It is kind of a scrapbook of life. It’s fun to look back over the posts from the past 3 years and a couple months and see all the twists and turns that life has thrown this direction.
The cool thing about this blog and the blogging community is people are there to lift you up and keep you striving for better. A compliment goes a long way. And even though the other day I didn’t list my 5 goals and people teased me about it, I still felt like I was being lift up and not put down. So, hopefully for the next year and through this blog, you’ll see that life can be happy in 2013 even with all the bumps along the way. I hope you’re with me for the long haul to see where this life takes me, takes my husband, takes my {step}daughter, and more importantly, takes us as a family. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little bit scared because right now there are a bunch of uncertainties….
Welcome to my blog. Oh and you might need a stampede string to keep your hat on, but I trust you it’ll be worth the ride! 🙂
Friendship Friday – Something Old, Something New
Keep on keepin on Nicole! Love hearing about your experiences and fun stories of life. And hey this is your blog, be who you are and don't worry about offending anyone! If they don't like it they dont have to read it right??!!!!
As for me, am I where I thought i'd be? Let's see, i was a whopping 31 years old 10 years ago when we moved to WI and I was pregnant. Didn't know a sole here. Was the hardest, most exciting time of my life.. and now 10 years later? It's good. LOTS of ups and downs~ more up than down thankfully. Feeling some restlessness within myself recently, not sure what to do about it – but will see where it leads.
Hey Nicole! I love this question! I'm not where I thought I'd be in 10 years, but I'm working on things slowly but surely! I loved Costa Rica and I'm totally jealous you did a study abroad there! I'm looking forward to following you this year and going through the ups and downs together! Keep blogging friend!
Ahaha love it! In some ways I am wear I thought I would be in 10 years. I am married and 3 kids (just how many I wanted =) two boys and a girl just what I always dreamed about, I just came about them a little differently) Those dreams turned out pretty well, the rest, not so much! I never dreamed I wouldn't own a house by now, or that I would be a working mom. In my head I would be a stay at home mom and we owned a big house with lots of property. That still is my dream, but it is not really in the near future. Oh well, hopefully we get there someday.
Shoot – I have no idea where I'll be in 10 years! 2013 is gonna be a good one though 🙂
If you love your blog and love what you are writing then it is exactly what it should be. 10 years ago for me I was already married, just graduated from college and started working for DCFS- seems like a totally different life.
you should totally be yourself i'm learning at 41 i'll never please everyone so it's time to take care of myself
I always enjoy your blog, and hope you keep on, but it is yours and don't worry, if you are pleasing folks, please you first
I'm glad you started blogging so that we could meet, and I'm not where I thought I would be at this point either. Our lives turn out the way they are supposed to in spite of our plans 😉
I LOVE your blog. You are someone I can turn to when I need. I may not always get to read your posts the day you post them or comment like I should , but know I love to read about your life. As for worrying about offending people… I'm with you on that one … I watch what I write, but think I need to just put it all out there… Not quite like Rachel at RachelIsNaked.blogspot.com, but I think there are times I really need to just say what I think and those who don't like it can just skip that post. Who knows, maybe I would get more regular readers then!
Whatcha think?