How Blogging Has Changed My World

Or alternatively: It's My Five Year Bloggiversary!!!

I've been thinking a lot lately about my five year bloggiversary and all that it means. If you asked me five years ago if I'd still be blogging today I probably would have laughed at you. I was just out of grad school and Scott and I were living in a tiny town without much to do. I missed my grad school friends terribly and had a job that didn't really require much brain power.

I immediately fell in love with writing about books and connecting with book lovers all across the world. But over the past several months I've realized that blogging is more than a hobby for me. I think many of us can say that blogging has changed the way that we think or read or interact but blogging has literally changed my world. 

Once upon a time I would have told you that blogging has brought purpose to my reading. Of course reading is still pleasurable, but I thought about it more, I talked about it more, and duh--I wrote about it more. I paid attention to what I was reading, I paid attention to the books I wanted to read, and lately I've started paying more attention to details such as publishing houses and the different politics in the booking world (though this last piece to a lesser degree).

But over the past two years my blogging has stretched so much beyond books. It has allowed me a medium to personally stretch myself. It has allowed me to uncover other hobbies such as quilting, photography, and cooking/baking that I probably would have left undeveloped. Many days I stretch myself to the limit but the point is that I'm stretching myself--continuing working on personal development. Not only with hobbies but with self-reflection. There have been many times when I've felt like a lost wanderer but this blog has been a constant.

Not only have I stretched personally but through blogging I've discovered something about myself that I really love and really want to continue to develop. I love spreading joy to others and encouraging. Whether it be encouraging people to read more classics or non-fiction through challenges, or extreme cheerleading during the readathons, or get moving with the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge, or lately in the kitchen and in other areas through the Pinterest challenge and my Operation Kitchen challenge. (That's a lot of challenges!). But the point is, it brings me such joy to see you all happy! Now, if I could only figure out how to tap into that in "real" life whether it be work or otherwise.

The pitfall is that blogging is tough for non-bloggers to understand. I don't doubt that any of you understand what I'm talking about on this post but it's tough to explain isn't it? Perhaps what I want to say is Thank You. Thank you for sharing the past year or two or three, four, five with me. Thank you for stretching and learning with me for continuing on this journey with me. I am eternally grateful for your support and love throughout the years. Unfortunately at five years my 'free' time is much much more limited than it was in the very beginning, but I do hope you all know how much you've meant to me in this little journey.

If you ask me if I'll still be blogging in five years I'll go ahead and laugh at you now. By then we're hoping to add another (or two) babes to the brood and I know that life will continue to be exponentially complicated. But secretly? I hope so. I simply cannot imagine my life without blogging and all that it brings to my world. It's a tough hobby to explain to others, for certain, but it is one that has helped me grow more than I could ever have imagined.

How has blogging changed your world?

Thank you for indulging me. Thank you for everything really.

To many more...and with much love.







NOTE: As luck would have it, today happens to be one of those days when I'll be going non-stop until I hit the sack tonight. I won't be able to respond to comments today but I WILL respond to comments on this post. I WILL--you mark my words. ;)

I wanted to keep this post simple without many distractions of pictures and links, but if you're looking for more of a journey type of post, my four year bloggiversary sums up the journey better than this one.