It's 6AM now, so I've got 18 hours to work on that before the deadline strikes.
I feel like an unlucky Cinderella.
Before I start reading, typing frantically, and cramming for tests this week-
I must blog.
Blogging keeps me sane, at times when the day holds more responsibilities than I'm ready or capable to finish. Coffee will help. Blogging will help, too.
Must not think about Plato and what topics of which I shall write for a paper deadline right now. Far too stressful on this Sunday morning.
I took some pictures yesterday.
I'll blog about them now.
(right after these messages, that just happened in my head and should go right
here on this blog.)
Writing is like therapy for me. Taking pictures is what I do. Writing about those pictures is a simple way that I relax and regroup. Sometimes, I don't know what to write about. Actually, most times. To combat that annoying little obstacle, I just start typing.
Whatever words end up here are my thoughts at the time in which I type them on the screen.
I guess some people would say that my blog is more of a journal than anything creative or useful for others.
I figure that there are plenty of other blogs out there to fulfill the demands of readers.
Mine isn't usually one of them.
My blog is not really centered around any specific topics or advice columns that will help people find certain bits of how-to information they can use in life.
That's what Google is for.
Since other blogs and Google exist, I release myself from obligations of making readers love me or the random thoughts I write about.
So, why do I blog?
The motivation behind writing has always been strong for me, but the various reasons for blogging have changed repeatedly since I first began on Blogger.
At first, I wanted to promote photos I'd taken that I thought were better than average.
I dreamed that people would look at my blog, see my photos, and that somehow-
I'd become a famous photographer.
I realize that the leap from posting pictures online to professional photography is tremendous. When I began this blog, however, the jump seemed possible and even likely. How else would people discover me, I thought. So, that's why I blogged back then.
I am still not famous.
My photography has achieved account-making all over the web, but not much else. Photo contests I've entered have resulted in top 10 statuses, but I haven't won first place in any submissions yet.
No one has called me to praise the photos I take and to hire me as a professional photographer.
They're missing out, of course.
Still, the point of this matter is that blogging makes me dream of the things I really want.
Blogging and writing are means to self-discovery.
Although I'm not a professional photographer, I found that my passion for taking photos is real and persisting. I realized a talent I have and I gained confidence by blogging about my photos, if nothing else. That's what's happened with the first motivation results thus far. I'm okay with it.
After receiving no house calls from talent scouts or magazine editors begging for more of my photos, I began blogging about my new business venture on Etsy.
I started a shop, selling vintage and antique finds, at Lifelooklens on Etsy.
My store closed, following the death of my grandfather, the demands of my job, and the beginnings of going back to school for a degree I needed for the job I felt stuck in.
I miss owning and operating my Etsy shop. For the few months my store was open, I made about 60 sales and additional income that helped while my husband completed his third year in pharmacy school.
Yeah, I blogged about all that for a while. I promoted my Etsy shop and perhaps my efforts to post about it on this blog resulted in brief success at Lifelooklens entrepreneurship.
Still, no talent scouts called.
After I closed my Etsy store, following a heated message sending frenzy centered around the non-mailed status of a 1980's teal Caboodle kit, I decided to move on.
I stopped posting for a while.
After all, I felt like I had failed in both ventures and purposes for blogging in the first place.
I realize now, that is nonsense. Pish-posh, if you will.
I went on a craft-making spree for a couple of months when I didn't post much on Blogger.
I began drawing and sketching again.
I pursued a cartoonist's dream for a while.
I thought about centering my blog around the drawings and sketches I doodle.
I posted some of those on here.
That got boring when no newspapers wanted my cartoons.
Why I feel that success is getting my work published, I do not know.
It's just something I've always wanted. I still do.
As I reflect upon my history of blogging, I've gained an overall perspective about the benefits of writing and posting on Blogger.
Here's what I've learned:
THE BENEFITS OF BLOGGING:
- Blogging promotes self-awareness, clarity, insight, and overall mental health.
- Physical, tangible effects in my personal life have directly been the results of blogging.
- Success is not being "discovered"
- Success is persistence of dreams, even when the specifics of those dreams aren't yet realized.
- Blogging helps to discover what dreams you want most in your life.
- Writing down your thoughts makes them more real.
- You're more likely to pursue your passions when you blog about them.
- Positive self-esteem is achieved by creating posts on a blog that you feel proud of
- Creative talents are discovered via blogging
- Even though you may not feel like anyone is reading your blog...someone does.
- The thoughts you have are better organized on a blog than they are in your crazy little bean head.
- Blogs don't have to center around any specific topic/subject.
- Blogs do have to center around specific topics/subjects if you want to have consistent readers.
- If you believe in being yourself and valuing the traits you have that others aren't aware of- blogging achieves self-confidence, better communication skills, and better writing habits.
- Blogging leaves something behind that will not die when you do.
- Blogging makes your own personal mark on the world, even when you can't see it at the time.
- Blogging is relaxing.
- There is freedom in blogging. There is control, when life spins out of control.
- Blogging changes you, in positive ways that you never expected.
- You can write about whatever you want.
One of my favorite things about blogging, in summary, is that you
don't have to begin typing with any specific idea in mind.
It will come to you.
It will develop before your eyes, like magic.
This post serves to demonstrate that last benefit of blogging, I think. :)
And now, the pictures I said I'd blog about...
because this is my blog. this is me. the story of my life, in pictures...ever-changing...
Enjoy, and don't stop writing!
Dear Readers and (Shy) Talent Scouts,
I would like to thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you will return. I am uncertain of the reasons for which you have not contacted me yet for photo publication, though I am sure they are noble and are not intended to offend me. I would like to publish a book. I would like for you to help me do that. I will be thrilled to see stats on my blog increase as you view this post and are compelled to find more photos and posts I have written. I am sure you are just very busy. I am sure that you will enjoy at least a post or two on this blog, if you grant me a few moments of your valuable time. I will forever be grateful for your attention to my work. I would like to tell you about my dream. It's simple. Just publish one thing I've done, so I can stop self-promoting my work in such a demeaning, shameless manner. I live in Nashville, Tennessee. People say they like my pictures. I would like for more people to see them. I would like for you to help me do that.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for following. Thank you for coming back to see what I do next on my non-conventional blog of random thoughts and ambitions I hope to achieve.
Please leave comments for any suggestions, features, or promotions/topics/projects/whatever's-in-your-head that you want to see here, on my blog. I will appreciate and accommodate suggestions!
Regina Hodge.
Lifelooklens.
affiliated with many various online projects, but Lifelooklens is my overall alias. Now, you know my name(s).
I hope to hear from you all soon. :)
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