Tagged – About My Blog

So Emily, at Aprons Strings for Emily, tagged me a few days ago for these fun questions about your blog.  Since I honestly cannot think of anything else to write at the moment (at least that would be of even a remote interest to you, or me too) I figure now is as good a time as any to do it!  Maybe it will get those creative juices flowing!

1.  Why did you start your blog?

I started reading blogs sometime last summer, I think.  I just happened upon one infertility blog (probably due to a google search) and starting clicking down their blogroll and was amazed at the community.  It was a Godsend and exactly what I needed at the time!  Eventually I came across Jenna’s blog at inconceivablejourney and remembered seeing her on Oprah.  I just thought it was so cool that I could continue reading her story since she had really stuck in my memory after seeing that show.  Shortly after I found her blog she decided to go “invite only” and requested that if people wanted access that she’d like to be able to know a little bit more about them too.  That is really what gave me the final push to start my own blog.  I was at a tough place emotionally too and writing about it (plus knowing some of you were reading it) just really helped me work through some of my thoughts and feelings.  

2.  How did you come up with your blog name?

I actually came up with it fairly quickly which is surprising since I am so uncreative.  But at that time, because I was in such a bad emotional place, I really felt like I was truly changing and becoming a different person than I used to be.  It started to hit me that this journey might very well not be temporary, as I had always optimistically assumed.  I think for the first year or two of TTC, I kept thinking I just had to stick it out until “the end.”  But all the while I was also thinking ”the end” was only a year or two away.  I knew my personality had changed.  I was losing my ever-optimist views, I was starting to really despise my job, I was feeling major bitterness when hearing about other people getting pregnant, I was just generally unhappy.  So when I started the blog I was just beginning to realize that I might not ever reach “the end” and I was truly afraid that all those things might be the new permanent me.  Hence why I felt that I was becoming a different person.     Thankfully now I look at becoming a different person in a new more positive light.  Now I try and remember what is it about infertility that has made me even better today than I was 3 years ago!

3.  Do your friends and family know about your blog and what do they think?

Well, up until a few weeks ago none of my IRL friends or family knew I had a blog.  I did spill the beans to a good friend of mine recently though.  She told me she was thinking about starting a food blog and I eventually fessed up and told her I had one.  I knew it would be ok telling her because she had always been one of very few people in my life who knows about my IF and has always managed to say just the right things to me that made me feel better and not worse.   At first, I was very nervous for someone I know to read my blog since essentially, this is a diary of sorts.  But once she read it, I think she got a better understanding of what living with this is really like.  With the blog, you see the good days, but you also see the bad, and usually quite ugly days. 

I have really been thinking about telling M about the blog but I’m super afraid he wont even be interested in reading it.  Maybe he would at first, but not on a day-to-day basis.  I mean heck, I think he gets sick of how much I talk about my feelings to him already.  So what makes me think he’d want to not only listen, but then also go and read my feelings.  That might be too much feeling overload for him.  And if I told him about the blog, and he never read it, somehow that would hurt even more so for now I’m not telling him. 

I’ve also thought about telling my family but just haven’t committed to actually doing it yet.  I am just afraid that I will be afraid to write certain things for fear of what they might think.  Mostly because I love them so much and they are proud of me for doing as well as I am.  I’m not sure I want them to see the worst of it. 

4.  How do you write posts?

Well, mostly I just open it up and start writing and eventually it takes some kind of form or topic.  Other times I have something I know I want to write about.  It really varies.  But I have noticed that the more happy/content I am in life, the less I feel the need to write.         

5.  Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

No actually, and I am very thankful for that.  All of my commentors have always been extremely kind, thoughtful and understanding. 

6.  Do you check your stats or care how many people read your blog?  If so, how do you increase traffic?

I do check the stats but I don’t do things specifically to increase traffic.  I think just writing posts everyday increases traffic a lot but I don’t want to feel like I have to write every day.  I’d rather write when I feel compelled to write because of something going on in my life.  Not because I want more people to read my blog.  I realize that not everyone will find me interesting and that is ok with me.  That is why it is so great to have so many different blogs we can choose to read from. 

Ok, that is it!  It turned out much longer than I expected!  Obviously the creative juices got flowing just fine!  Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Oh yeah, and I guess I tag All You Who Hope, Charlotte at …and not by sight, and Sara at Gas Passer!  But if you’ve already done this, no problem!  It’s just for fun!   Also, anyone else that wants to do this, considering yourself tagged!