I often get asked this question, by my non blogging friends and I find it difficult to explain. This blog started off as a kind of on-line secret diary, a personal account of my thoughts and feelings about my life to look back on. When I was persuaded to go public it became a whole new ball game. It then also became about sharing me and not just trip reports.
I often now find myself thinking in blogging terms and it makes me look at the world in a slightly different, more organised way. I notice what I notice and I find words to describe it.
Still, I ask myself. is it just not a tad egocentric to blog? Probably!!!
I will admit that sometimes I am a bit uncomfortable with publishing some of my posts, will people judge me? but I feel the a strange need to share some of these things with the world,. this is all part of being “who I am”.
Actually I would love to be funny, more interesting, have a better command of English and a better photographer, but that is not who I am. So what you see is what you get.
This is always a dilemma. Being out there and public, could expose me to some wierdos, but so far so good.
I am quite an open person. It has taken me years to “find” who I am, as opposed to who I want to be, and come to terms with that. Blogging helps me put “me” in terms that I can understand.
As to my family, well of course I have no right to expose them so in the main I keep them anonymous. but my husband knows I blog about him , and when I blog about other people it helps that I need to do it in a non judgemental way, so sometimes that gives me a different perspective.
Then there is the blogging community, I have met some lovely people and I am making new friends.
..and if you are wondering what the above picture has to do with this post…. nothing. The picture seems vaguely voyeristic. It was taken in the evening in a Helsinki shopping mall after the shops were closed. The girl in blue had obviously come for an after hours make up lesson and I stood fascinated while the make up artist taught her how to transform herself.
I just like the picture and a picture adds to the layout!.
Love Denise
denisefrombolton 
That's very similar to my own blogging experience. I started when I came to Europe in 2006, mostly to share photos and stories from my travels with my friends and family back home. Lots has changed in my life and the blog since then, and I've discovered a great community of fellow bloggers who read my blog more than people I know in real life do! The comments and interactions are great, but it is still something I do for myself at the end of the day…
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Interesting post – particularly since I'm still trying to answer many of these same questions for myself.As Gwan mentioned, the biggest benefit of blogging has been the unexpected pleasure of meeting people of different ages, backgrounds, etc., whom I would have never met otherwise. Another surprise is that blogging has made me more observative and interested in my surroundings. I find myself looking at things in a different way since everything is potential fodder for the blog.
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Mary Kay and Gwen…glad to hear other bloggers say the same thing and I am not the only person looking at things and thinking in blog terms in my head.
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Well, I admire all of you who have Blogs – I wouldn't have a clue as to how to start one and even if I did, then I would have the problem of knowing what to say and how to say it??? I think I would be in the same situation that you talk about here – and I don't have confidence in my writing skills so I come to the conclusion of what's the point of even trying?? I think it's fear that stops me as I'm not sure I could actually "blog" on a continual basis – I have started to write a personal journal and try to put a few words in there every day but I don't think I would go online with it – as I said before, fear is what keeps me from actually doing it – isn't that silly for woman of a certain age!! LOL!
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Sandy…this started as a personal journal, but I found that writing this way was far more successful than any diary I had started through the years. I look on my blog as a trip report of my journey through life.You never know, keep writing your personal journal, one day you may feel confident enough to publish.I keep telling you, chocolate shops in Paris are a very interesting subject!Love Denise
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