The Friday Five: What I’ve Learned From Blogging

On most days, I don’t write anything specific about my personal life, but today is a notable exception. Today marks a very special one-year anniversary for me — in fact, exactly one year ago, I registered for an account on WordPress and started blogging right here. 365 days and 96 posts later, I have loved every minute of the blogging experience, and have grown tremendously since the very first post I ever wrote on WordPress.

To commemorate this occasion, I would like to share some of what I’ve learned in the past year of blogging. Feel free to comment below with some of what you’ve learned as well!

The Friday Five: What I’ve Learned From Blogging

1. You never know who is reading.
It doesn’t matter who your target audience is… you will still attract readers from other groups as well. Yes, most of my readers are college students, but I have also heard from various family members and employers who have read it as well. My readers come from all over the world and it is amazing to hear from so many perspectives when reading through comments. Blogging has allowed me to learn more about others, but it has also taught me the importance of inclusivity and not alienating any potential readers.

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2. Blogging means community.
Throughout my blogging experience, I have found that it is extremely important to keep up with other blogs in order to stay fresh and informed. In doing this, I’ve been able to meet and interact with a variety of bloggers, forming somewhat of a community through WordPress, Twitter and other social media. As a blogger, I have become acquainted with such a variety of writers, and in turn, have introduced some of my IRL friends to the world of blogging.

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3. There’s a Taylor Swift song for everything.
I used to make fun of a lot of Taylor Swift songs for their subject matter (“I like this boy but he doesn’t know I exist” “I’m in a relationship and it’s the best thing ever” “I wear a lot of dresses”) but with the release of her album Speak Now, I realized that I could relate to more of her songs than I thought. With nearly 10 percent of my blog posts pertaining to something written by T. Swift, I can’t simply disregard the fact that there will always be an artist whose work speaks to you. For the past year of my life, Taylor Swift’s music has spoken to me, and it will be interesting to see who and what I draw inspiration from in the next year.

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4. Making connections is one of the most important things you can do.
In English classes, we are taught to look for specific literary devices that don’t mean much to us personally, but as a blogger, I’ve definitely been able to pick out more prominent themes in famous works and apply them to my own life. Whether an excerpt from a novel, a scene from a movie or a line from a song, these various pieces can shed some insight on our own life experiences and observations, and help to point out a more universal truth. Blogging has taught me the power of making such connections and also enhanced my overall enjoyment of the works I read, watch and listen to.

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5. You are bound to contradict yourself.
In time, as you learn and grow from every experience, you will find that sometimes your thoughts, feelings and opinions will change. Because of this, some of your blogs might seem to contradict one another, and that’s okay. A blog doesn’t have to be perfectly static — it can change over time, just as you will. Realize that what you find in the next year may surprise you, and embrace the contradictions that you face.

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To my readers: Thank you for such a wonderful first full year of blogging. You have all been such an inspiration to me and I could not have done it without your support.

To my fellow bloggers: What have you learned from your experiences in blogging?