I was interviewed the other day for an article about blogging. Most of the questions were fairly routine, and not at all difficult to answer. It was the first question that I was asked, and which I answered fairly quickly, that has stuck in my head. My answer to the interviewer was somewhat brief and to the point, but I thought I would take it a bit further here.
Why do you blog?
It gives me a way of journalling my life in a brief fashion, and allows me to hone my writing skills.
Okay that was the answer I gave. But the more I think about that question, the more I started asking myself, why do I do this?
There are people who blog for any number of reasons. I have seen blogs that are for financial gain, blogs written because it's the "in-thing" to do, and a number of blogs that are just about furthering the author's egos. It's the "Look how fabulous I am blogs" that I don't care for, which I am sure is because they are the type of people I avoid in real life.
So why do I keep doing this? Well I was first attracted to it, simply by reading other blogs. Two people in particular I had read on a regular basis: Cyberkenny, who is no longer blogging that I am aware of; and Thomas (link at the top of the blogroll) at Kungfukittens who I fondly call my "Blog Daddy".
I knew that's the type of writing I wanted to do as well, journalling my life, preferably in a semi-humorous way. Since I started this way-back-when, it has become so much more. It allows me to connect with other people all over the world, but in a way that chatrooms never really accomplished (Chatroom; noun; pop culture way back in the stone age, you know, the 90s).
I (and all of you) now have a chance to really connect with the gay world in a macrocosm (is that a word?). It allows us to express ourselves, and that genetic nature that ties us all together, and learn from each other. If you look at the people on my blogroll, there are blogs and people of every shape, kind, and nationality.
Growing up in a small western Pennsylvania town, I never had exposure to other gay people - that I was aware of at least, and now. Now, I know how you all live, and love, and laugh, and cry. And I know that I am a part of something that was not just a choice. That my friends, is the true power.
