Why I Blog: The Power of Words

At the beginning of the year, I blogged only because I had to- it was part of my class AP English Composition. At the very beginning I wanted to pretend I was someone else on my blog- I wanted to pretend I was an old Russian man whose name was Vladimir. If you look at the oldest posts, you will see that I write a great deal about Russia (after pretending for a week or so I just changed the pronouns to match my own personality). I was taking it as more of acting practice because I really didn't understand the concept of keeping a blog. Of course, then the teacher pointed out to me that blogging was about being honest and writing about what you truly believe in and are interested in. I liked that route better anyways, so I began to write about me. Still, I was only writing because I had to for my class.

As the year went by, I started to become more involved with my writing. It became less and less of an assignment for me and more of a place where I can just write and have people hear what I have to say. When I am just talking, sometimes I have trouble expressing myself and I stutter a lot (at least in situations when I am not confident in what I want to say). So writing is a good resort for me, but writing in notebooks can get very laborious. Thankfully, I can type quasi-quickly so blogging has become that place for me to go aside and just put down what's in my head.

Also, people can listen to what I have to say. People are willing to read my thoughts and my opinions. Although few people really read my blog, I'd like to believe a whole lot more people do read it, 'cause it makes me feel better. I like the YouTube videos that I put on here, and I just want everyone else to take a look at those because I think they are truly something special. I'd hope that people would take a look at those videos, but I doubt that anyone does. However, since this site is open to everyone, there's always a hope that someone's watching it. There's always a hope that I am changing someone with my words. I mean, that's the point of writing-- to change someone, either yourself or another. There's only one time in my memory when my writing has had a deep effect on someone- it was at the Interreligious Council of Cedar Rapids. I read a speech I had written about the late Rabbi Chesman, and the speech brought one lady in the room to tears. I will always remember that feeling- that overwhelming feeling of extreme self-fulfillment. I wasn't joyous by any means, but I began to understand the power of words.

I'm not sure that I will keep blogging often after this school year, but I do know that blogging has had quite a strong effect on me. To me, my blog is like a big journal of my thoughts of this year. It hasn't been very journal-esque, but I know that when I look back at it in five, ten years I will laugh at the thoughts that I've had, even though now they have seemed to be very important. Nonetheless, blogging creates enormous opportunities as countless amounts of people are able to look at what you have to bring to the table. My writing has definitely improved because of this place, and I am going to miss writing on here every week. Who knows, maybe I will keep on writing on my blog. I may start to miss that feeling.