The Good Thing about Blogging

I have a lot of doubts about this whole blogging thing sometimes. Don't you?

My dad likes to helpfully (jokingly) remind me that, according to him, the "original" blogger was the Unabomber—typing away in secret on his manifesto that nobody read. Awesome.

But really, blogging does seem so ... odd ... and narcissistic at times. I mean, why do we share so much about our lives? The big-name bloggers, who make serious money at it, are one thing. But us little folk, why are we doing it?

When I ponder questions like that, it helps to think of times like last night. I met up for dinner with sweet Sarah and we had a great conversation. We would never have known each other existed if not for the blogging world.

We talked about the Catholic Young Woman blog, which we both love. I pointed out that I've always felt a little awkward sharing my story on there, because Frank and I didn't follow the "Christian courtship" model at all—we went on dates from the start. "My story probably isn't the kind of thing that readers of that blog are looking for," I said.

Sarah disagreed with me, though. "Every story is different," she gently reminded me, "and your story will resonate with one set of readers just as much as a different story would resonate with another set of readers."

How beautiful, and how true. Each blog tells a different story, that reaches out to a different set of readers. By telling our unique and individual stories, each of us has something to offer. And by reading each other's stories, we gain the wisdom and experience of other lives.

Telling our stories is one of the great goods of blogging, and reading each other's stories is another. But most of all, blogging is about community. It's about making friends in the online world—keeping in touch with people and forging new bonds. It's something I'm just beginning to fully appreciate and cherish.

I have a feeling that this blogging community is going to become ever more important to me in the years ahead, as I forge into marriage and motherhood.

So thank you, Sarah, for the lovely dinner last night, and for that bit of wisdom. I'm grateful for this blogging world that brings together unexpected friends.

Best of Last Week and would you give up your internet?

I thought I would be doing these "best of the week" posts every Monday, but somehow they always seem to come out a little late... anyway, enjoy!

How to laugh your way into a journalism career—so much great advice in here. I loved this line—"There are many young people who are entrepreneurial mediastarters, engaging writers, technological whizzes … and yet they can’t spell [and] have never heard of AP style"—it's what I always say: grammar matters! Of course, my favorite piece of advice was to "start a blog only 10 people read." Isn't that what I'm doing here? ;)

I adored this article asking readers to Stop instagramming your perfect life—because none of us have a perfect life, and the most important things in life can't be captured in a status update.

This article was especially interesting for me because of conversations Frank and I have been having recently about our internet use after we get married. He's thinking about getting rid of his Facebook entirely, and the apartment we want to rent doesn't include free internet so we're talking about giving that up as well (we would still be able to use it in the lobby and other places). That seems so dire to me—life without internet? How would I survive? How would I update my blog?! But honestly, my horrified reaction to the idea is exactly what gave me pause. Am I that dependent on it? Maybe I should give up internet, just to prove that I can ... and I have a sneaky suspicion that my offline relationships would strengthen and grow as a result.

Lillian and I have been talking about this gorgeous blog post all week. Lindsay has such a beautiful family and we adored this great post about welcoming each child as a unique, irreplaceable blessing. The culture of life is a glorious thing to behold.

A simple way to pray from our good Pope Francis—a great post to share with kids.

I recently discovered this absolutely darling blog called A Daily Something and her recent post about defending the rights of homeschoolers was fantastic, and especially interesting in light of last week's conversation. However each of us decides to educate our children, we can all agree that families deserve the right to homeschool! Please do check it out.

I have about a million other articles saved to share with you all, but I'll save them for next week's best of the week, which will probably be mostly about marriage. Can you tell it's my favorite topic these days? :)

Happy Thursday, dear friends!