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 ๐Ÿ˜€ . 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 ๐Ÿ˜€ . 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 suddenlyโ€ฆ 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 ๐Ÿ™‚ .

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12 Responses

  • wow. 5 years ? salute!
    aku mulai nulis2 blog baru mau jalan 2 tahun.
    kayaknya mesti banyak belajar nih sm ka amel ๐Ÿ™‚

  • alay

    yea mel.. lo ternyata masih tetap lebih rajin nulis daripada gw.. yang blognya udah terlantar 2 taun hahaha.. beli domain aja ga sia-sia ga gw bangun.. tapi ya.. some things need some time before we do it.. just to make sure that i’m still a blogger ๐Ÿ˜›

  • alay

    do you mean amellie.blogdrive.com?

  • amellie

    alay: hihihi… ayo lah ngeblog lagi! ๐Ÿ˜€ gw dulu pernah pake amellie.blogdrive.com. cuma sebelumnya juga pernah hosting di tmp lain.. which I forgot..

  • Itโ€™s not something that Iโ€™m embarrassed about; honestly Iโ€™m proud of it because my life was not wasted. I have changed โ€” in a positive way.

    Most insightful. Thank you !

    I used to be embarrassed by my old articles, he he. The only thing stopping me from deleting them is because it’s not a fair thing to do – people have left comments there, it’s useful to others, etc, etc.

    Now I’ll try not to embarrassed because of it.
    Thanks for the new perspective.

  • alay

    I will. And the time is near.

  • alay

    Oya, klo gw minta tolong lo desain, sempet ga? Masalahnya gw pengen ganti desain tapi ga ada waktu x_x

    Klo bisa ntar gw kasih gambarannya deh, tenang aja ga akan menyusahkan..

  • rahmah

    mulai taun 2004 yah.. gue juga deh.. akhir 2004, tapi blog gue udah nggak tau kemana…. hehe… udah nggak keurus… tapi kadang mel, ada bagusnya menulis jujur apa adanya…. kadang emang susah ditrima bagi orang yg kesenggol, tapi kadang juga menginspirasikan org laen juga…. selagi yg kita tulis wajar.. kan cuman mengungkapkan pendapat…

    yup bener.. ngeblog bikin nambah temen lalu, bagi kita yg nulis dalam basa english.. sekalian bikin kita terbiasa dalam berbasa english… lo tertarik blajar basa belanda nggak mel… hihii.. ngeblog dalam basa belanda juga deh….

  • amellie

    @sufehmi: thanks for the compliment ๐Ÿ™‚ glad that you get something to learn about hihi…

    But I can tell you that I did removed some of the blog posts prior to 2005, because some of them were too personal ๐Ÿ˜€ .

    @alay: maaffff… gw gak ada waktu nih :-S masters have taken away my free time. very busy at the moment… huhuhu…

    @rahmah: hehe bener juga ๐Ÿ™‚ .

    yoi tuh nambah pengalaman nulis dlm bhs inggris! and juga blog qta bisa dibaca ama non-indo ๐Ÿ™‚ belajar bhs belanda? sebenarnya tertarik but right now I hv little time for it… gosh…

  • I’ve just started.
    gak ngerti english n gak ngerti blog. tobaaaat!
    salam kenal, please support me

  • happy 5th blogging anniversary, Amellie! ๐Ÿ™‚

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