Several years ago I started my first blog, to chronicle a distinct part of my life. I am still posting to that blog more than five years later, but because it's tied to a specific part of my life, it sits dormant many months of the year.
In 2007 I started a blog to write about anything and everything that tickled my fancy. That was my slice-of-life blog. I ended it in the summer of 2011. The timing seemed right.
I started writing columns for inboxcupid.com in the spring of 2011. That didn't last long. I posted my material here and decided I'd spend a month or so writing about dating and relationships. I wasn't sure what format I'd use since my writing was no longer for a dating website audience. This blog has no audience, really, it simply became a place for me to write about something other than crime and government.
I don't know how many more years I'll write for my first blog. I started to run out of things to write about a couple of years ago, although I found new things to write about during 2011. Without going into detail, the blog is like a historical record of one aspect of my life, and when that chapter of my life comes to an end, so will that blog. I don't do things for the benefit of that blog, that blog follows the experiences in my life, the choices I make and why I make them.
My four-year slice-of-life blog was inspired by a friend whose blog I stumbled upon. When I stumbled upon it, I didn't know the author, but I enjoyed his writing. I responded to his columns at length, and he encouraged me to put my own thoughts down in blog form. I did. More than four years later I still haven't met the Wisconsin resident that inspired my blog. His blog ceased within a year of mine starting for reasons beyond his control. He also stopped reading my blog regularly when he was no longer actively penning a blog of his own, so he might not have a clue that my blog died this past summer. Nonetheless we communicate by email occasionally and are determined to get together for a Major League Baseball game one of these seasons.
The dead blog chronicled personal thoughts as well as opinions and observations on some very obscure topics. The blog was anonymous, but I did share it with a handful of people. I'm pretty sure they stopped reading it, too, even though I posted new items regularly. I was at a low point this summer when I decided to pull the plug on the blog. I was afraid I'd be too personal and too honest, and even though it seemed my friends weren't reading it, I couldn't take the chance that one of them might read what I was liable to write.
I don't have a truckload of stories about bad dates and painful experiences, although I could have come up with several more stories about the wacky world of dating had I been inspired to do so. Without the potential of an audience for this blog, however, the inspiration is lacking. As with my previous blog, I had no interest in attaching my name to this blog or begging my friends to read what I was writing.
During the past month I came up with a few topics I enjoyed writing about and shared a few thoughts I might not have expressed had I felt compelled to shape them in the form of a full-fledged column for inboxcupid.com. I really wanted to write columns that generated interaction with an audience, something I really haven't had through my other blogs. I didn't get that via inboxcupid.com, either, save for one person whose writings I have enjoyed, even if our discourse has been limited.
I won't say this blog is dead, but I'm not sure I'll ever have a compelling reason to add another chapter. This blog will not be about any future highs, or the subsequent lows, of my life, and I'm not sure I want to expend the energy to share memories or thoughts about dating and relationships when there's little chance I'll reach more than one person. If there's a place in my life for that, there are other ways it can be accomplished.
So once again I'm a man without a blog, for the most part. I'm not sure if I should feel liberated or empty inside.
aw, I will miss you!
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