A Blog That Speaks To You

Recently, well actually a few months ago, a friend of mine made the comment that he could hear me speaking when he read my blog. He said he could hear my characteristic intonation as he read through the posts. He likened it to having a phone conversation with me or listening to me rant in udergrad during the commercial break of NBC's Thursday Night "Friends", "Frazier" and "E.R." line-up. Something about the pattern and flow of the post reminded him of my speaking manner. The only quality missing he said was the occasional southern drawl.

However, when he shows the posts to his co-workers, they often point out mistakes or ask about missing sentences, and grammatical errors. He tries to defend me by saying "He once wrote for West Virginia University's school paper, 'The Daily Athenaeum' and was even part of the team when they were one of the top ten university papers". But their only replies have been, "does he not have an editor anymore".

I can see how these strangers can see the mistakes. When I wrote for our school's paper, I was more eloquent, used 10 dollar words and utilized spell check. The words which flowed from my mind then underwent major scrutiny, not only mine, but the watchful eyes of my perfectionist editor. I was chosen to publish stories about student government, mainly the board of governors, therefore I was a little more careful about how my stories were presented.

My buddy informed me that if he hadn't known me and stumbled across my blog by accident, he might not get it either. He the writing didn't show the expressive journalist he knows is in me. I told him that I wasn't writing as a journalist anymore, but writing as me, in a diary format. I had started this blog to keep in touch with my friends--rather than writing long emails out to many people. A little secret about me...I keep in touch with almost all of my friends. If we met and clicked, rest assured you would hear from me for the rest of your natural life. Christmas cards, birthday cards, presents for your children and spouses (I learn their birthdays too) are constantly being sent out from my home. My whole philosophy is, if you've somehow made an impression on me, changed my life (doesn't have to drastically altering either), then you are worth keeping as a friend. And I highly value each person I consider a friend. I didn't get tired of writing to my friends--I could sit at a computer all day and write email upon email to them. It became time consuming and I realized that for the most part I was repeating myself to many of them. I got the idea from a friend of a friend and started blogging. Through blogger I could reach the majority of them with one letter. I have encouraged them to write comments, but they save their comments for phone calls and emails. Plus many of them have already heard the post topic before I post it and have commented accordingly.

I don't feel like I have to punctuate in all the right places, nor use grown-up words in my posts. I write the way my brain throws out the thoughts, haphazardly and coming at you 1000 miles a minute. This may explain the simplicity of my posts and why at times it doesn't make a lot of sense. When I converse with my friends I get excited and babble incessantly and nonsensically.

I thank many of you for reading my blog. I've made so many new acquaintances through blogger. I want to thank you for your patience with my writing style. I hope you continue to read. I also hope you continue to post in your own blogs, so I can continue to learn about you too. We are all building a sort of on-line friendship that I've become quite attached to.

P.S. Although the conversation between my buddy and I took place months ago, it was recently dredged up from my vast wasteland of knowledge by a post from David Amulet. It his last post, he was re-evaluating his blog.