Four years ago I started writing my blog and what a four years it has been. A lot has changed in the blogging world in the last four years, but I think the biggest changes happened over this last year.
When I started writing my blog, I naively thought I was the only person doing it. Or at the very least there would be just a handful of people writing about their daily life. I had never met another blogger, and it was a hobby that I quickly fell in love with. I remember a few months into blogging discovering this whole blogging world, a community. At the time it seemed like a wonderful community, where everyone supported each other and it felt like I was part of something. Over time, this community started to show its true colours and along with this the blogging world got bigger.
So called friendships became about how ‘big’ you were in the blogging world, how many followers you had and if you could help them get noticed. If you couldn’t and your follower numbers weren’t big, these friendships slowly disappeared. It made me realise that these people weren’t my friends, or even my colleagues. A very big and hard lesson was learnt. I see these people move onto other ‘friendships’, with bloggers that they think being associated with will help them get whatever it is they want – more followers, holidays, paid work! Who knows…
Many times over the last four years, I’ve nearly walked away from blogging mainly because of these reasons. But then I remember why I started my blog, that I love writing my blog and that this shouldn’t be a reason to stop. It won’t be the reason why I stop.
Over the last year, I’ve found myself more on the edge of the blogging world and I’m quite happy there. I know who my friends are in this world and I know who my colleagues are. I also know the people that I thought were these and are in fact neither. I’m ok with that.
I’m going to move into this next year of blogging, and take inspiration from other bloggers who keep themselves at the edge and do a brilliant job at it. I want to explore more, about what this wonderful blogging world could bring me. Because it is a wonderful world to be part of. There are so many brilliant parts of blogging and this year those are the parts I’m going to focus on. Looking through a fresh pair of eyes and shaking off last year.
I feel incredibly lucky and proud that I’ve managed to turn my hobby into my job. A job that I love and I don’t dread Mondays. That is what I am going to hold onto this year. To push myself more than I have before and see what new paths I can take. I’m going to write more about what I love in life and not worry about if its what people want to read. I love a fresh start and this year feels like one.
Thank you to everyone that has read 1 post, 10 posts, 100 posts or all my posts (Hello Mum!). If you’re a follower from 4 years ago, or 4 hours ago. Thank you for being here and I hope you stick around.
