Another One Bites the Dust as She Enters the Blogosphere
I can recall, with a touch of sentimentality – as one would remember their child taking her first, precious steps – my first foray into the Blogosphere.
I arrived at my (home) office that first day with delusions of grandeur. Finally, I was going to rule the world. In a matter of weeks, I’d earn 10 thousand dollars a month, just like the rest of them. Watch me!
By the end of that first day, I barely had the domain name, let alone a single, solitary word published. It didn’t take very long to realize I knew nothing about blogging and had much to learn.
Ignorant as I was with the machinations of blogging, I plugged along confident that – by God – next week will be the week that I’ll finally earn my 10K! It was just around the corner, just over yonder, I could almost taste those clean, crisp dollar bills.
Needless to say, those first few months were long and arduous.
In the years that followed, I was lucky enough to befriend two bloggers who knew how to blog, and more importantly, how to code. The three of us met weekly to share our blogging woes, and to help each other get through them.
Those two ladies were lifesavers.
The blog started off as Hashtag 385. Yes, the use of the term “hashtag” in the domain name was green at best, and terribly embarrassing now.
What the blog looked like that first year, and what it looks like now couldn’t be more different. The blog hasn’t exactly changed as much as metamorphosed into something completely different.
The “385” message is still front and center. The site is now 385 Life: The Art of Living With Passion and Wonder. It wears new makeup, new clothes, a new style, a new walk, a new attitude. And although it looks much better than it did years ago, I still don’t know what I’m doing.
I realized a year ago that I’m a writer who blogs, not a blogger who writes.
It’s an important distinction that helped shape my efforts toward productivity in areas I could be productive. Understanding the intrinsic difference between writing and blogging allowed me to pivot my purpose and place it where it belongs.
While I’m still learning how to blog, I’m resigned to the fact that I may never totally “get it”. But that’s okay. I learned a lot along the way and blogging helped me hone the craft of lacing words together in a way to form an expression that can be shared, and then hopefully, inspire.
Blessings…
