Every blogger's favorite post to read is a post about blogging. Me included. (Is it not your's?) Recently, I've stumbled upon two great articles that shine a light on slightly varying perspectives on lifestyle blogging: Blog Brighter's The Mistake Lifestyle Bloggers Make When Trying To Grow Their Blog and The Well's The Future of Blogging, An Update – in particular the section on the OG bloggers. (PS. Both are awesome blogging resources!)
You guys, we know The Rules of Blogging. Get your Bloglovin' profile hoppin' and poppin'. Become a social media guru and shamelessly self-advertise... but not too much! Add value to your content. Be original. Have your own voice. Use your firstborn's college fund on a DSLR and Photoshop.
But you know what? Sometimes I get really good at procrastinating on schoolwork, and I go way way way way back in the archives of some really big blogs (or medium, or small blogs too for that matter). I read their one-line photo-less posts. I see their simple 10 word happy lists. Their grainy, blurry, pixelated pictures. And honestly? These are kind of my favorites (uh, after a post about blogging, let's not get crazy now).
How wonderful it is that we're allowed such a real, imperfect, unedited, un-curated peek into someone's lives! How amazing is it when we hear their unfiltered words, feel the joy and the pain and the pride and sadness and exhaustion that emanate across screens?
Don't get me wrong. I do appreciate today's blog landscape. The editorialized layouts - so pretty. The breathtaking photos. I can scroll for days. The thoughtful posts. The helpful posts. Instagram, Pinterest – I live for those shenanigans! And blogworld has increased so dramatically in number and influence that some of the noise do need to be cut. I can only take so many gross photos of hummus before someone peaces out, or else I'll be the one judging them.
But what if ... What if sometimes I'm just really over coming up with the most SEO friendly blog post that includes value, originality, humor, and a touch of quirk? What if I just want to post about my friends and I making pizzas over the weekend and how okay, it was really pretty dumb, but it was SUCH a happy time... the pizzas were ugly and way too salty and yes the triple layers of cheese was NECESSARY, but it was just so. dang. fun. And sometimes I don't want to be bothered to repackage that into something more meaningful than what it was - a heckuva good time.
The point of this blog is to document my life as I transition my way through some unfamiliar terrain, to remember ten years from now what it felt like to be here at this one point in time. This blog has been such an enormous part of my life for the past three years because I've been doing just that, and I've been reading back periodically and it excites me each time I come across a little moment I've forgotten, or a milestone I want to replay in my mind. And what if I'm willing to give up a certain number of post pageviews to have that completely authentic experience? Does that make me a selfish blogger for taking up valuable Bloglovin' space on my readers' feeds if sometimes my posts can veer towards the unedited and the imperfect?
