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Sunday, January 16, 2011

This made me smile.

Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs


This made me think about why I blog.  (You don't have to read my response, but you should read the article because it's super good/funny/insightful.)
Back in the days of xanga (woot woot), I blogged because that's how you stayed in touch with your friends, plus it was a nice place for me to vent about how my parents "just don't get it" and "never understand me" and "holy crap, I can't believe I got grounded AGAIN for slacking off/being lazy/sneaking off/other dumb things 15 year olds do."  Or writing really bad poetry about a boy that liked me for two days until I realized he liked me and got self-conscious and convinced myself I was like totally in love with him but now he never talks to me and I just don't know why.  Le sigh.  Or I'd talk about how awesome me and my friends were and all the fun mormon parties I went to. 
Then came Myspace with its handy built-in blog feature.  These were mostly filled with me quote-dropping from all the latest hipster/emo/scene/indie songs, and thinking deep thoughts about my future and what I wanted to be when I grew up and how this one boy I dated was so great, but then I dumped him and now he hates me, but secretly I still liked him because he was familiar, plus it always caused fun drama for me to write about and sound really deep and mature.  Yeah, you know you wanted to be my friend in high school.  (That's sarcasm if it doesn't come through.)
I also heavily used and abused the "Note" application on Facebook my freshman year of college.  I've deleted most of these posts, because they were pretty depressing/personal/don't apply to me anymore.  (Funny story, a friend's mom read all those notes and convinced herself I was mentally unstable/suffering from serious depression and went up at church and told my dad she was worried and that he needed to intervene and get me help or something.  My dad was pretty embarrassed.)  I wasn't actually depressed, but growing up was a painful process for me, and honestly I'm still figuring out how to be a "growed-up."  I just have a better attitude about it now.
I started this blog because writing has always been a way for me to sort out my thoughts and help me understand myself better.  I probably don't fit under the "Mormon Mommy Blogger" label, but I can say that my faith heavily influences my outlook on life.  And no, things aren't always perfect, (and things definitely aren't always picture-perfect) but who wants to hear me complain like I'm fifteen again?  I've learned one thing through all my experiences, reflection, and writing, and it's that if you focus on the negative, you never even recognize the positive in your life.  So yeah, sometimes Mormon blogs can be a little Polly-Annaish,  but like the author of this article says, is that such a bad thing?  Not from where I'm standing.

1 comment:

Katherine Beard said...

Wow you knocked this one right out of the park!!!!!!!!!!!! You are hilarious and honestly I love that last paragraph about why you write now! Its brilliant baby!!!! Yes there are a lot of exclamation points in this but thats how much I love it!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously hope you never stop writing. And Im not just saying this cause i wanna stay with you for presidents day and play i the sun with you, but you should look into writing free lance for people, websites, magazines!!!!!!!!!