If I’m a blogger, am I a writer?

I have taken up writing a blog along with 158 million estimated bloggers who believe they have something to say that someone other than their mom wants to read.

I started writing a blog when I left my country of origin and drove 7,000 kilometres to ‘live my dream’. The blog was a way to let family and friends know I hadn’t been murdered along the way, but more importantly, the blog became my new best friend. You see, I had left my friends and family behind, not because they were starting to annoy me, but because I wanted my life to change*. This change left a massive hole in the nurturing, supportive friends department, hence the blog where I could wax poetically, muse philosophically, and rant tirelessly with my new BFF.

At first it was a one-way arrow, all energy out with zero reciprocation. I had a handful of Followers (the biblical reference not lost on me despite my atheism), all related to me but I didn’t care. At least I thought I didn’t.

When I received my first “So and So, totally unrelated to you thinks you’re pretty awesome” I realized how fragile my ego was. I tentatively clicked the link provided just to see who this stalker was (admittedly I didn’t ‘get’ the blog concept yet) and lo and behold, here was a person who wrote “Well, how cool are you?!”

That tiny bit of encouragement was all I needed to keep writing. It also illuminated two very important things for me:
1. I was in desperate need of affirmation at this point in my life and
2. Maybe I did care that someone other than my mom thought I had something meaningful to say

I still don’t call myself a writer but who knows…if I get enough “So and so thinks you’re pretty awesome”, maybe one day I will be.

*Nothing changes if nothing changes, my mom always says. She is the master of the understatement.