Five Years of Blogging

It was on April 2004 that I decided to open a new blog for myself. I had just arrived in Brisbane and I thought that it'll be great to write my new experience in the new country. After all, that was the first time that I traveled alone in a totally strange place. I still had problems with English, especially writing. And I wanted to find a fun way to encourage myself to practice writing in English more often. I also wanted to sort of have an online diary where I could write anything. It was just for my own pleasure. It was not meant for other people. And that's why I decided to open a new blog in a less popular blog service. I couldn't even remember the name of the website now!

It was not until one year after I started my blog that I decided to take blogging more seriously. It was also an important milestone for me: I just turned 20 years old and I sensed parts of me changed — my way of thinking, my decisions, my views on different issues in life, etc. I became aware that life was not only about satisfying my needs. It was not always about me. It was much broader than that. I had to open my eyes and saw my surroundings. As I progressively changed, my blog also gradually evolved. I began to blog about more serious issues that were interesting to me. When I read my blog posts written prior 2004, I could see how childish I was back then. It's not something that I'm embarrassed about; honestly I'm proud of it because my life was not wasted. I have changed — in a positive way.

I have stated in my blog for many times that I don't enjoy writing. In fact, I used to hate it whenever I was asked to write an essay or report. It was through blogging that I forced myself to write. And honestly, I began to like it. Every time I received positive comments from fellow bloggers, I felt motivated to write more. Through blogging, not only did I improve my English writing, but I also had a chance to broaden my knowledge in many areas. I have learnt so many things just from reading other people's blogs. It's just amazing! I also encountered a number of bloggers (whom I admired their writing) that later became my friends — not only in the virtual world, but also in the real world.

Not only that — blogging has helped me in "throwing out" my opinions. People who know me well notice that I am no good communicator. I'm bad in explaining and voicing my opinion and thoughts. On some issues, yes, I could go through it. But most of the time I'm struggling. I have my own thoughts. I have something in my mind that I want to share. I have something that I believe in. But for some reason, I have a hard time in explaining it to others. As a result, I talk crap and people would barely understand me 😀 . I feel like my brain is rushing me to say something that I just let my brain controls my mouth LOL. I can't construct the words. I can't translate from the brain language to the human language 😀 . My former housemate told me that I think AND talk at the same time! LOL. What she said DOES make sense. Because I usually begin to say few sentences and then suddenly… I'm STUCKED. "What did I want to say again?!?!" Haha. So, through blogging, I can think AND THEN write. I voice my opinion more clearly in the blog rather than in conversation.

Blog also brings my memories back. I am an extremely forgetful person. I always think that my brain needs a memory upgrade. It's not good for remembering stuff. Most of the time when I read my old blog posts, I discovered about many things that I barely remember about. I also realized that my views on certain issues have changed. I used to be so honest in the blog, without ever considering about other people who might be offended by my writing. I used to write about anything without thinking about any consequences. But now I'm trying to be more careful (I don't know if I can, but I try. Sometimes I can't help it! haha).

Writing a blog regularly is a hard thing to do. It requires a commitment. I am amazed that I could do it back then. It wasn't easy because writing a blog consumed a lot of time. Now that university keeps me busy all the time, my blog is sadly ignored. I probably can't write a blog two times in a week, but I'll try to write something regularly. From now 🙂 .