Are you expecting me to keep a
blog? No way…
For many years I have refused to
keep a blog, and I have been averse to the idea of even opening one. But I have
been required to have one if I want to complete the work of my class. Yes, I am
a newbie in writing blogs, and I don’t have the even most minimal idea of how
to start a blog. Nevertheless, if we consider that journaling or diary writing
is the father of blogging, then I can consider myself an expert.
I started keeping a journal when I
was thirteen years old, and I was pretty faithful to it. A page will be filled
with the happenings of my life and things that I considered important every
day. You could find any topic and any feeling on it, but in order to read it
you would have to read Spanish, English and Tagalog. It recounted my life in
the different places where I have lived, the relationships I formed with people
of different cultures and languages, and of course my joys and sorrows. I did
keep my journaling habit till the age of 37, when for a good reason I decided
to stop writing, and I decided to burn my journals, many of them! It was the
time I was working in the Philippines and it was my time to move back to the
USA. I decided to burn all those stories written in those journals because I
did not want them to get lost in the middle of my moving back to this country.
It was a tough decision, but the best choice, since I was shipping my books,
and I did not want my life scattered throughout the world in case the books
were lost.
And here we are, I have to restart
my writing habit, which by coincidence match my restarting the journal-keeping
habit. It has not been easy since I have no idea about what I want to write. The
journal is more for my personal keeping; recounting my important moments. However,
the blog is for everyone to read. The journal is somehow permanent. In other
words, if it is not by some external force, it will be there for all the time. As
to the blogging posts, I have no idea how long they will exist, or if by
mistake they will disappear. I mean, just think of platforms like friendster, or
myspace; they were not blogging platforms per se, but they were promising
social media outlets. yet they dissolved after few years of their rising. It is
also important to think that when we write journals, many times it is for
ourselves and not for others. So it is very different from blogging which by
its nature requires a writing style which stands alone even if it belongs to
particular segment. My question is then, how can I appeal to an audience who is
accustomed to the ephemeral nature of social media technologies with something
that is as personal and full of passion for me as an everyday recounting of
things that are important to me, namely journal or blog? How can I help people
to put in their minds that even if things in social media are ephemeral, they
have to be truthful as they are in ordinary ways of communication, and personal
relationships?
I am then confronted with the
decision to write either with the desire to make a difference, or to write with
the desire to get lots of likes and followers, but be gone with the wind. So my
hope is that I will write to contribute with realistic, to the point, and short
blogs which could impact the life of my readers as well as mine.
To know more about the author visit:
You could also read:
* How to Start a Blog - video
Lo bueno de los blogs es que no te podemos dar un sope en la cabeza for burning your journals. Tienes que ver el lado bueno a las cosas.
ReplyDelete"Hola Padre Alex! I pray your blogging goes well. I don't know anything about writing blogs either but I'd be happy to read them. You pose great questions here, I'm sure you will go down the path of wanting to make a difference like you live your life day to day. God bless your work. Pati. "
ReplyDeleteKnowing you as I do, I am sure your blog will achieve all that you hope it will. :-)
ReplyDelete