[life changing]

Blogtember question #8: Discuss ways that blogging or social media has changed you.

It may sound cliche but blogging really has changed me.

When I was little, I dreamed of being an author. I loved to write.

But as I grew up, I wrote less & less. Sure I wrote mountains of papers for school.

It wasn't enough. There was this chasm within me, like something was missing.

Then I went to Rome, Italy for a semester. I debated endless ways to keep friends & family updated and eventually settled on a blog. I didn't want to fill people's inboxes with emails they meant to read but never did. Instead, I wanted to provide them someway to check in when they really wanted to. So a blog was born.

It started out humbly: here's a picture of me on a bridge of the Tiber River!! Look at this church I went to!! The food is delicious; here's a picture of wine & pasta!

But then it grew. I started to really tell stories about life in Italy, from getting stranded in Pisa due to a rail strike to watching the locals hang up Christmas lights in Trastevere (the neighborhood I lived in). I started discussing the differences in culture and politics. I talked about what I missed and what I didn't. What I loved and what I hated.

And through it all, I started to find my voice. I also started to learn to cook for myself but that's another story.

When the time came to go home, I knew I couldn't stop writing. I didn't know what I would write about; I just knew that stopping was no longer an option.

There have been periods during the intervening years where I didn't blog much. But during those times that old chasm began to reappear and I found myself blogging again. I discovered that I could write without confining myself to a career as a journalist or author. I could still do whatever I wanted career-wise and write to my heart's content. While I may not be a journalist or an author, blogging has given me the confidence and the practice to maybe one day write my own novel.

My voice has changed over the years, even though my cooking hasn't (all my dinners revolve around olive oil & garlic). Law school is probably largely responsible for that shift. But even though law school has impacted my writing, my voice is still there.

At the end of the day, blogging has given me a voice again. I am bolder now, better able to express myself and more confident in my ability to do so. Sure I would know how to express myself if I hadn't blogged but had just gone to law school. But I wouldn't be able to tell stories. Blogging has given me a way to tell stories. And I will always be grateful for that.

Via.