Two years ago, I began my blog without really thinking of where it would lead me. I don’t really know why but having a blog made me look harder and deeper at everything that was happening in my life.
I began to scrutinise and analyse what people said. I watched TV and listened to the radio as if it was a homework assignment. I scoured other blogs and online news portals to see what others were saying and thinking. Always at the back of my mind, unconsciously or subconsciously, I thought of my blog and wondered, “to blog or not to blog”.
As luck would have it, less than a month from the birth of my blog, I found a “cause” I believed in. My involvement in the anti-I.S.A. vigils that followed, gave me a weekly topic to promote and to write about. It helped build up my confidence when people responded and commented.
I had other bloggers guiding me, helping me, nudging me along the way. Without their advice and support, I know it would have been more difficult so I really am glad that they shared their knowledge so unselfishly.
Today I celebrate 730 days in existence and just over 150 blog posts. It’s a drop in the ocean if I compare with others who have been blogging since before blogging became fashionable. It’s a tiny scratch on the surface if I look at the top bloggers who have hits in the millions. So I don’t do that.
I look at my blog and don’t compare with anyone. I don’t compete either. I feel proud that my stats are what I believe to be reasonably high. I’m a blogger. There have been times that people have stopped me in public to say, “Hey, I know you, you’re a blogger, I read your blog”. At the beginning, I used to feel embarrassed but not anymore. I am a blogger and I say that with pride.
As STEEST reaches two years, I look back and I can tell you that the highlights have not been that some posts were featured on Malaysia Today or that I’m listed under “Fabulous Blogs” or even that Global Voices invited me to write for them.
The highlights are the friendships I’ve made.
If I hadn’t started blogging, I’d never have found the warmth and kinship of other bloggers. I’d have missed knowing the camaraderie of a “friend” or that of “a friend of a friend”. Who would have guessed that great friendships could blossom from the least likely places?
I think when we write, we share a part of ourselves. In some small way, it is a window to our soul.
To those of you who have peeped through the window, reached out and touched my life during these last two years, in one way or another, I just want to say
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
