Getting Involved Feels Good

I haven’t been sure exactly where to look for valuable content to read—I’ll continue my search. I looked in several different places over the week, but I’ll share brief stories about two of them.

The first wasn’t actually a blog—it was an online newspaper article and the discussion (via comments) that followed. I tried to get a general idea of what was going on and what people thought about the issue. Then I submitted a comment of my own. I tried to include both my own opinion on the issue as well as acknowledge the truth I’d seen in what I’d read. It wasn’t received as well as I would’ve liked, but I was still glad that I’d made an effort to be a part of the conversation.

My second experience had to do with a young woman—a girl several years older than me from my home ward. I think she babysat me once or twice, but we never knew each other all that well. A few days ago, she gave birth to her first child—at only 24 weeks’ gestation. She, her husband, and the baby have been through quite the adventure this week (including a LifeFlight from St. George to Salt Lake). This woman—a mother now—and her family have been posting on a new blog and all week. But I never read through any of them.

Until yesterday. I spent the time it took to read everything I could about their week, including the many comments on their posts. Although the editor side of my brain itched to make some fixes, I focused on the feelings reading the posts evoked in me. In this aspect, the posts were beautiful. I made a comment on one of the posts about how their words and attitude about their situation inspired those of us reading and watching. Judging by the “likes” my comment got, many people agreed with me.

It felt good to get involved in a cause—in a life—if only by learning what I could about it. I’m grateful for how easy modern technology makes it to do just that. It gives me cherished chances to interact with some wonderful people. 

Finding MIA

Finding blogs can be a nightmare. I had very little concept of where to start. I began by scrolling through blogs that followed my blog based on the "next blog" button at the top. Fail. Then I googled literary blogs and came up with book review stuff. Fail. Then I went to facebook and scrolled through friends and clicking on anyone I thought might have a blog. Nearly a fail.

But then I remembered Amelia. She and I worked together on the Stowaway Magazine staff for our editing capstone class. I was the Managing Editor and she was the Art Director. We both liked curry and V for Vendetta, and we were really good at supporting each other when a venting session was in need. But that was last semester and I hadn't really seen her since. So I clicked on her blog.

I know we were supposed to find knew people and build the foundation of potential blog-based relationships, but deciding to follow Amelia's blog was like finding a new side of her. The foundation of our relationship was built in person, but the realness of her life's worries and experiences I found while reading three or so of her posts. She writes in a short-burst, miny essay style. By short-burst, I mean she writes a thought leaves hard return spaces allowing for dramatic pause, reaction, sarcasm, etc. and then continues in that same way. When she begins to move into more profound thoughts or realizations her sentences become smoother and more connected. It was fascinating.

I found Amelia in her blog. I didn't expect to do that. I thought I knew her pretty well, enough for a curry date anyway. And I think I was wrong. Blogging may be the un-examined life we place out in the shadowed open for the world to see. But how many of us actually take the time to look? I'm glad I took the time to see Amelia because it turns out there is a lot to see.

https://ameliawallace.wordpress.com/

New Perspectives

I found this assignment difficult, but also really fun. I loved reading different experiences from so many people that are interested in the same topics I have been writing about. One issue that I found though was that as I started researching different blogs along the same lines as my reading was that I was becoming bored. Bored and uninterested with my own topics. That's when I started wondering if I was writing about the right stuff, so I began searching for other topics that might help me decide what I want to write about.
I started with an "I am a Mormon" video of this girl that had cancer when she was 16 and then it came back. It was really interesting and inspiring, but as I started reading her blog, I started to feel like I wanted to leave the issue behind me.
So my next approach was to search out missionary blogs. I found a few that were interesting, but for the most part, they were just letters that people who personally knew the missionaries would want to read.
At this point, I was starting to get frustrated with myself for not being able to stick to a topic. Then I found a link for a blog called the rmtc, which you can find here. http://thermtc.com/
The writing was amateur, but I found it a lot more interesting than anything else so far.
Something that I enjoy about blogging in general is that people can find connections with other people whom they may have never met otherwise. Blogging is great in that people can share longer stories and experiences with a wide variety of people, which is not exactly possible via Facebook or Twitter because of word limits (whether placed by the creators of the site or by social norms).

what I found.

I literally just used Google and clicked around, reading, until I found blogs I found engaging enough to continue looking into. I sound so snobby, but there's the truth. But, here is what I found:

I found this blogger here, http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com/ , and went through her posts thinking that it was going to be a pretty subtle mommy-blogger but was pleasantly surprised with her boldness. She writes mostly about politics and the up-to-date happenings with the Church. Obviously her posts include her own opinions, sometimes gets a little sassy, but it’s enjoyable to read and think about the things she is writing about. I commented on a couple of her posts but they needed to be approved first, which totally makes sense.

I also found http://askmormongirl.com/ where the blogger takes comments/emails of questions from her readers and answers their questions with her knowledge of the gospel, of historical evidence, and her own experience. I really enjoy this blog because it seems less opinionated and more informational. Again, obviously there are opinions there, but they aren’t necessarily explicit. I think it’s really cool that this blog is working for her—I think my fear in this type of blog would be getting people to ask questions in the first place, but she seems to get a lot of them.

I think it’s important to interact with those who are also in this sphere of blogging, of sharing their content, because it allows us to engage with the now, with the issues and ideas being discussed, instead of hoping someone will find our content interesting regardless of how dated it might be. Conversations are happening whether or not we are a part of them….might as well have something worthy to contribute, right?

Hunting for Mutlifaceted Blogs

I've been brainstorming the different blogs I'd like to look into, and I've decided I'd like to go the personal blog route rather than one that designed for a certain subject or agenda. I like the more open-ended possibilities of personal blogs. One post may be about an event, but the next might be hashing out a current events issue. One day the blogger may vent a little; another day they may open up about something difficult and important. I think I'll having an easier time connecting with a blog like this.

Through Facebook I've found two blogs that I think will work well for my efforts to make connections. One blog was started by a girl I went to high school with, and Ive already done some interacting with her. A couple months ago, she lost her sister. She shared a lot of her heartbreak through Facebook, so I was aware of the situation, when one day she shared a blog post about her terrible visiting teachers and their insensitive visit so soon after this tragedy. I responded, since I've had my fair share of visiting teaching failures, but those failures have taught me what not to do and have ultimately become something positive. She never replied to that post, but a couple weeks later I shared a short post on Facebook reflecting on grief and death, and this girl commented almost immediately.

For this assignment, I've been looking at her blog again and have discovered it's quite diverse. Her latest post is a DIY project--which wasn't exactly what I was looking--but I like that she shows multiple sides to herself. It's not all serious. Even though I'm certainly no Pinterest Diva (I don't actually have a Pinterest), I commented and shared my own ideas for the project.

Likewise, my second blog has a wide span of post types. The blogger is my old visiting teacher (a good one, but short-lived) who has since moved away. She's a stay-at-home mom and nurse and she shares adament health opinions, simple experiences with her children, and deep personal issues like her miscarriage and birth. Some of these posts coincide with my ideas for my personal essay.

Maybe I should narrow my searches for connections, but like seeing a dimensional person. What do you think?

The Blogging World

To be honest, at first I didn't really know where to begin my search for blogs to read so I simply entered "recommended blogs" in the Google search bar.  As would be expected, I was given website upon website with titles such as "Top 100 Blogs of 2014" and such.  I skimmed through some of those websites but most were business blogs or catalogue type blogs and nothing really interested me.  So I searched for blogs on Google+ and found one that really surprised me.  The blogger is Liz Strauss and she is an international brand strategist.  Now, when I read her profession I didn't really know what that meant and assumed she wouldn't be writing personal posts but she had a quote posted to her profile that said "You're only a stranger once...be irresistible!"  that intrigued me.  I found a link to her blog called LettingMeBe (lettingmebe.blogspot.com).  Her posts were artful, intelligent and even philosophical yet also personal.  I was surprised at how much I like her content.  She had about 25 comments on each post and I enjoyed commenting on her writing as others had, it made me feel part of the web.  I was skeptical at first of simply looking around for random people but I was pleased with what I found.

Still, I felt there was something more to be read.  Though Facebook is a closer circle that the Google Search Bar, I decided to see who of my friends kept blogs.  One girl from my Sophomore ward, a girl I have only had a few conversations with, just began a blog.  She has only posted once.  I read her post and was moved to tears.  Her writing was precise yet moving as she described the death of someone close to her family.  I immediately messaged her and thanked her for her post and complimented the aspects I liked.  She responded, admitting that she had been nervous to post her writing and she told me she was in the midst of posting another and hoped I would read it.

Though both different experiences, I have enjoyed letting go of my own writing and focusing on the works of others.  It is rather gratifying.

Two Blog Approaches

I started my journey into the blogosphere with “The 444 Project,” which was started by my friend’s girlfriend, Josie. For the past two years, she’s used her blog and internet presence to teach people about a condition that she suffers with: bipolar disorder. She discusses her struggles with drug abuse and suicidal thoughts. She talks about the difficulty of growing up with bipolar disorder, and how her struggles with the disorder have brought her closer to God.

Josie’s blog is wildly popular. She travels throughout the United States (and, as of last year, Italy) giving stake firesides and youth conferences to help spread her story.  She also interviews “random strangers” on the street, asking them what “gets them out of bed each day.” She shares the stories she hears with the people in the firesides, in an attempt to spread joy with all of the people she sees.

Another blog I looked at, “Bright and Beautiful,” had a similar mission. This one is written by Beth, a friend of mine who just moved here from Hawaii. Her blog is more intimate, detailing her lifelong struggle with body image and confidence. She writes posts weekly which explain her views on self-perception, as well as how we treat others.

In reading these two blogs side by side, I realized that while their two approaches were very different, both of these blogs had the same mission: they wanted to convey something that their authors had learned, so that an audience could benefit from their experiences. Beth and Josie have very noble intentions to share their knowledge with the world, though Josie does so through macro-level public speaking and campaigning, and Beth does so through modest essayistic posts.

I don’t know if one way is better than the other to do what they want to do. Josie will obviously reach more people, but her blog seemed a little chaotic to me, which made it hard to focus on what she was saying. Beth’s brevity and eloquence in writing made me reflect more on what she wrote; but then, Beth will probably reach less people through her writing, in the long run.

Both approaches, though, are really admirable. I love the idea of using writing to teach, so that a reader can learn through experiences that someone else has had.

Blogging Outside Myself

For this assignment I decided to try something I rarely do. I decided to read the blog posts of my friends and acquaitances that they share on Facebook. When glancing through my Facebook feed I don't typically have time to stop and read the blog posts shared by others. It's not that I'm not interested in their lives, it's just that typically when I get on Facebook it's to quickly check out the ward Facebook page and glance through my news feed to see if anything big or exciting has happened. Today I glanced through my news feed with the intent to read the blog posts, specifically the posts of people I know well enough to be friends with on Facebook, but not well enough to be close to them in real life.
The blog that I ended up focusing on was written by a new co-worker who I've only known for about two months. Her blog (www.bethanyjoybrown.blogspot.com) focuses on self-perception, body image, and being confident in yourself. I read a few of her posts and I loved the insights she had to share. She also brought in outside sources, such as Instagram, quotes, and other blogs, to add to her message. I glanced through some of these as well, commenting on the things that stood out to me.
Through this process I learned a few things:

1. I really need to take the time to read blog posts shared on Facebook. I really enjoyed what I read and I loved getting to know this co-worker better.
2. In reading these blog posts I was able to connect with another person in a new way. We possess shared experiences that I was only able to learn about through this co-worker's willingness to share her thoughts and my willingness to read.
3. There are a wide variety of resources and multiple ways to connect with other people on topics you may struggle with if you're willing to take the time to look.

I really enjoyed reading these blog posts and I plan on continuing to take time to read the posts shared by others and to participate in the community of writers found on blogs.

Blog Shopping

I loved this assignment, because it gave me new ideas about where to go with my writing. I did a fair amount of searching and commenting before finding my two favorite examples of projects I would be interested in replicating or expanding on.


1. http://www.normons.com/dont-think-god-is-mormon/


One of my favorite sites that I found is called "Normons." It is a blog dedicated to answering tough questions about Mormonism and opening up the discourse between members of different faiths. I first heard about the blog from a friend who wrote for it, but I never had the chance to visit it before now. I read an article that I found very insightful called "I Don't Think God is Mormon." The crowning statement of the document reads as follows: "I don’t think God is a Mormon; I think God is truth." I love that sentiment, and I have always felt that this approach to Mormonism is the best way to encourage the involvement of people outside of our faith. When religious discussions becomes a dispute over names and titles and track records, the conversation always turns for the worst. But when the focus is maintained on individuals seeking truth in different formats, I have found that the experience is mutually beneficial. I emailed the group of contributors and asked if the piece I am working on could be featured on the site. We'll see if anything comes from that, but at a minimum, I am grateful for the example of writers finding a way to reach out to a broad audience and make a positive impact on the world.


2. http://blog.fairmormon.org/category/gender-issues/


The Fair Mormon Blog was also interesting for me. This is a site that is dedicated to addressing difficult issues with multiple, largely unaffiliated Mormon writers. I read a few posts about gender issues and was especially intrigued by the posts about youth suicide rates in the church compared to outside. Overall, this site was very engaging, but felt less personal and more current events based. Good to see that approaches can be different.

I read a couple other blogs, but these two stood out most to me as examples of how to reach out.