In my blogging history, this is yet another milestone, perhaps an achievement in the making. As I have no doubt constantly stated, I love writing. I began doing journals or diaries when I was 10 years old, shortly after I discovered my love for reading. Inspired by the Diary of Anne Frank, I felt compelled to also chronicle my life, no matter how seemingly mundane the daily details were compared to a kid who lived during the war period. And so began my experimentation with writing. Sometimes, I wrote in the vernacular, but mostly in English.
When I was in High School, my diaries took on a new form and became journals. No longer was I writing like one merely stating the details of the day but rather I was chronicling my daily life by writing about my opinions on certain matters, my dissections of my emotions and my observations of the things around me. The entries in my personal journal about personal stuff but were written as if it was being published in a school organ.
College saw me keeping journals in the same manner. I wrote mostly in the English language now. I began playing around with words, making my entries appear poetic and worthy of being read by someone. I have somehow managed to write in a way that if anyone read my journals, they wouldn’t quite pinpoint it to be me, except of course if they see my name in the front cover.
And so I discovered online blogs. At first I was averse to publishing my journals online. I considered it an invasion of my privacy. But sooner or later, I found myself instead of writing in my journal, to be typing away in my blog. Thus, I became a blogger.
That was 4 years ago. I’ve blogged on and off since then, depending on my resources and my moods at the moment. I still kept a written journal for all those years. Now, I still have a written journal, though I must admit I seldom write on it. I have begun blogging more actively, managing to switch from Blogger to Multiply, back to Blogger, and then ending up in WordPress. I have begun infiltrating other blogs and creating cyber friends through these channels. I am now familiar with how blogs are actually run and what widgets or gadgets are best for them. I have also encountered creatively designed blogs and began hoping that mine would one day be as creative as theirs. Most of all, I’ve began promoting my blog. Whereas before, I have kept my blogs a secret, open only to the random person who happened to pass by, now I am actively promoting it, reveling whenever the blog traffic surges or I get a new comment.
I am still a long way off from becoming the blogger I want to be. At one point, I came to doubt my intentions for blogging and have come to almost stopping my – according to some friends – shocking disclosure of my personal life.
But then writing has been my catharsis, publishing them my satisfaction and receiving comments my joy. Now I have taken blogging to a higher level for myself. I’ve entered the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards believing in that my articles are worthy for the said contest. I may or may not win, but then the mere fact that I’ve joined, consciously, for me goes a long way off.
For someone who’ve always dreamed of seeing her name with her own byline in a magazine or a newspaper, and yet ending up in a job she hates and somehow cannot yet leave, entering the contest is but an attempt at reaching that far-off dream – a dream she still hopes to fulfill.
