Why I Blog

As world 2.0 evolves and we head into what we may perhaps label 3.0 social interaction online, I had a unique opportunity to appreciate what blogging has done for me.

I have been blogging now for close to 8 years (remember the xanga days?) and I maintained this blog pretty faithfully for the last 5.   My blog has meant many things to me starting with a place for private social interaction among other cynics who were there to essentially mock one another and any newcomers too, to its most recent public iteration with caution regarding anything potentially mean-spirited.  It has meant a place to learn about my friends, to cohabitate online with people who I wish I lived near in real life.  It has served as a reunion to help me connect with those who I used to know and wish to know again and sometimes a place to meet new interesting people to fill in the crevices of my friendships with interesting and diverse mortar.

But as 3.0 existence may push out my own blog in favor of those that are specialized and provide valuable resources to like-minded people, I discover that the real value of my blog lay in secret, a latent purpose waiting for a need and point in time:  a record of my life.  I discovered this when a co-worker asked me about my work at the charter school in California, you know the one where I spent all of my waking hours in Santa Barbara?  And I was able to piece together the journey using my blog.  I walked down memory lane as I pondered the timeline:

My first post and explanation

One of my angry moments before they let us speak up

Newspaper article midpoint

I hate the superintendent (not anymore)

Our heartwarming activist moment (article is linked to blog)

Wait I still do hate this guy!! Nevermind.  Here is the video where he they show us and then him.  I have a cute haircut and way better skin, I think I need to move back to California.

The stay of execution (we won!  Wait, what did we win?)

My lamentations of public information laws

My better-late-than-never resignation

The final newspaper article which is kind of my swan song, has disappeared.  School was saved, got a 3 year charter, blah blah blah.

And I realized how lucky I was to have this blog.  The memory of that great work has already faded from my mind and I only remember the tragedy and heartache.  But if you look at some of those moments in time, I got to be part of a real movement, a local movement, a community-led fight against the man and the system.  Who would I be today without this experience?  And the record of it is all here in this neat little web application.  And there are other strands, years of halloween costumes, Catholic cigar box tributes to my deceased relatives, art shows, farewell parties, travels coast-to-coast, and my disheveled first day of school photos.  I have recorded the life and love I experienced over the years and my only wish is that I had blogged the first 30 years of my life to go back and verify my charmed existence in html.

If you don't blog, I sure hope you keep a journal because, well... how sweet it is to be reminded of the gifts of our years.