We’ve become a society that is driven by living our lives online. Important events haven’t happened until we’ve documented them on every social media outlet that exists. Bloggers aren’t immune to this social media obsession. In fact, sometimes we are even worse.
When you become really involved in blogging, your thoughts are constantly diverted to new and interesting writing topics for your blog. At first it’s easy to think of new things to write. But eventually, new ideas and uncharted blog territory become harder and harder to find. Since most of our lives tend to get monotonous and frankly pretty uninteresting, eventually you start seeking out activities and tackling non-existent problems for blog fodder. You find yourself cramming your weekend full of activities and new finds just so you will have some new to write about next week. And instead of enjoying these forced activities, you find yourself spending every moment scouting out the perfect picture. So what started out as a fun hobby to exercise those writing skills and keep up with your family, suddenly turns into a burden. That’s when you start living for the blog instead of living for yourself.
This weekend presented one of those opportunities were I could have chosen to live for the blog instead of myself. Mr. A and I had planned earlier in the week to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday. Unfortunately, our time got away from us—church meetings ran until 2, then grocery shopping soaked up another few hours, until all of a sudden it was almost dinnertime.
My first thought was that we needed to scramble and make our way up to the Festival before sunset. But after a weekend of not spending more than a few measly hours alone with my husband, all I wanted to do was lie on the couch next to him and talk. That’s when the internal blog struggle started. Do I run out and do something I don’t really want to do just for blog fodder or I stop living for the blog and start living for me?
I happily chose myself.
While I would love to have a mind-blowingly successful blog, I’m also not willing to spend my precious family time forcing my husband into activity after activity and pose after pose. Perhaps, that means this blog will never make it beyond my family and friends. But I’m okay with that. Because if this blog isn’t about my authentic, real life, I don’t want to write it. Maybe it means that I’ll only be able to post here every so often but I’m comfortable with that too. Being able to live a life that’s truly my own is more important to me than faking it just to be popular. I’ve only got one life to live so I better live it for me.
