To blog or not to blog...that is the question!

I shared my blog with only three people the first day I set it up.  My sister, my sister-in-law, and my husband. 

I came home to my husband making fun of me which then prompted my 4-year old daughter to follow suit.  My husband thinks blogs are self-indulgent, although he does find some that amuse him and he consequently follows.  He also seemed to think I was trying to be a poet---so then I was forced to hear my daughter say over and over, "I'm just a busy bee, my name is Jenn-y" and so on. I am no poet, and I would never try to be.

In fact, just last week I had to send an email to all staff at my school regarding a breakfast that is coming up.  I am the building contact to sell tickets to this event and so I also have the responsibility to publicize it.  The organization included sample emails to customize and send out for promotion.  The first one included a cheesy poem and I sent it off without even thinking about it.  A minute later, I received an email from a co-worker teasing me about being "such a poet."  I was immediately embarrassed, never considering the fact that our staff would think I actually crafted the email.  Oops!

I digress...I agree that blogs are self-indulgent.  I get that.  But maybe I need to be a little more self-indulgent.  Merriam Webster defines self-indulgence as "excessive or unrestrained gratification of one's own appetites, desires, or whims."  As someone who rarely takes the time or effort to satisfy my own appetites/desires/whims, perhaps this is a healthy outlet to do so. 

Growing up, I always kept a journal and many of my favorite books were written journal-style.  I probably kept one regularly from 4th grade past college.  Unfortunately, I don't have many of my journals left.  I have gotten rid of them over the years due to the personal nature of them and the fact that I really didn't want anyone to ever read them.  They were truly used as a way to get my thoughts and feelings out, which I am not good at doing verbally.

In more recent years, I became involved in an online discussion board which, while not technically a journal, was a new way for me to check in and type out my thoughts, feelings, and events occurring in my life.  This was a little different because other people were involved and I knew they were reading my posts.  Still, it served an important purpose in my life and allowed me to make many new, very close friends in my adulthood.

With the advent of Facebook, our message board is dying a slow death.  We are all on Facebook now and I am very active there, posting updates often.  But I don't feel it is the appropriate place to share all things.  I might share snippets there, but do not feel like it is the proper venue to expand on many of those thoughts.  It just does not feel personal enough to me.

I know these blogs are out there for anyone to read so, in that sense, they also might not be considered personal to some.  But I think the difference is that if people come to read it, they are choosing to do so.  They want to read more, hear more, learn more from the writer.  That is like an open invitation for me to write about whatever I want, think, or feel.  While I am not sure where this blog will lead me, I will make the effort to make it interesting to anyone who may come across it.  Do you have a blog? What do you use it for?