Recently I led a workshop at my school about blogging. One question I am always asked when I talk about the wonders of blogging, my blogs, and the huge body of writing I am creating is, “What got me started?”
In October 2009 I began work on AsOurParentsAge.net, with lots of encouragement from my husband. His mother, Betty, was near the end of her life. Essentially, helping to care for her filled up our non-work times and had for over two years. When we were not at our jobs, we were assisting Mother in some way. I started writing, initially, about topics that we wished we, as adult children, had known more about before we became caregivers to an elderly parent.
About a year later I began writing for MediaTechParenting.net, a blog that reflects my professional interests and work.
One blog relates to my vocation, the other to an avocation. Bottom line? Nearly 1000 posts later — a few of them posted on more obscure blogs — I still seem to have lots to say as I use this 21st Century learning and communication tool.
That my writing continues three and four years later — what I call the stick-to-it factor — I also attribute to my dad, a lifelong journal writer. In 1947 my father, now age 89, began writing in spiral notebooks, later switching to computers, and more recently using his iPad — although a spiral notebook is always within an arm’s reach. (Check out the iPad for Dad blog posts.)
He was writing in notebooks — his first journals — years before I was born, and they are now neatly lined up on several shelves in his apartment, one spiral bound notebook after another. I expect they contain all sorts of history about our family, and he always welcomes my questions.
I’d love to hear blogging recollections from other bloggers. Why do you blog?
Media! Tech! Parenting! 
Blogging solidifies my thinking… often my posts never publish because I find a flaw in my thought process or see the missing piece that I need to find first. Blogging also provides opportunity for others to push back on my ideas and finally, it is a great way to leave a artifact of thinking to come back to later to explore deeper. Thanks for inviting the comment and sharing.
I am the same way. I begin many blog posts, but do not publish all of them. You astutely observe that the writing process helps us clarify things or fill in missing puzzle pieces (I like your concept of artifact) of an idea, so we do not necessarily always need to publish. Many thanks, Matt.
Hi Marti,
I blog to learn, to create a repository for ideas and events I want to have easy recall access to, to document thoughts and events, and to share.
Cheers, Laurie
I love the idea of a repository — making our own easily accessible research resources.