What's in it for me???

So back from the blog vacation and while I was "gone" I was thinking about the next big post I wanted to write. In the real world I was working a lot. I am on a task force (sounds very formidable and formal doesn't it?) that is putting together a training manual for The Library. It's not finished yet but the biggest part of it is done and is a 250+/- document. My share was much smaller but it took a lot of my energy. So now that we've got the big stuff done, perhaps (perhaps???) blogging can be more like usual. Life when I wasn't working has been full of the usual walks on lovely mountain paths...

At any rate, as I pondered what I would I write and one of the things that I have been thinking about was why do I blog? Why do any of us blog?

So maybe I should just start at the beginning. (This may take more than one post... ) 

In October it will be three years. I began blogging because a teacher friend- Amy Kalinchuk  of Craft e-Revolution said I should blog and join NaBloWriMo. Why would I do that? and what in the world is NaBloWriMo and why would I join? A blog is an online journal she said as she sat in my comfy blue chair and NaBloWriMo is National Blog Writer's Month and a bunch of us all sign up to write on our blog every month. And why would I do that?  Because you're a writer and it's good practice- a place to write every day. 

Blue skies peering down at us through the rock.

At the time, I was working as a middle school librarian with the pay of a paraprofessional. I didn't have a teaching degree or a MLS but I was expected to do all the same tasks the teaching librarians did (learning on the job)... without the pay. In some regards though it was a great job and one of the great things about it was that I had some time to write when the work was all caught up and there wasn't a heavy stream of kids in the library. Kids would trickle in and I would have time to do my own thing whilst supervising the book shoppers (although generally they were just trying to get out of class so I always had to make sure I was keeping an eye out on the time). Blogging seemed an easy way to write what was on my mind without requiring too much solid concentration. 

Mo took this picture a mile or so into our hike. 

NaBloWriMo was quite a challenge but it was fun. I didn't really know the etiquette of blogging, didn't know I should follow people or have any desire to have followers (in fact I kind of dreaded them I think). I wrote on politics and religion and my family and I was always somewhat surprised (perhaps taken aback!) when someone would comment. It wasn't until I met a real blogging (Key West Diary) community that I started seeing how fun a blog could really be! 

You meet people and you have conversations. Perhaps you support one another or you just have fun. Whatever the case, many times you find things in common because you are writing about things that you care about and that others who like what you like are commenting on your blog or commenting on your comment. So, now I found two reason to blog. I was writing and I was making connections (although admittedly there were still not a lot of people stopping by my blog). But as I move on, I think there it's time to process this thing out because blogging takes time and building a community of followers who are really friends takes time. Having gained 182 followers (and I appreciate each and every one of you!!!) takes time! But is it worth it? Is it taking away too much from writing? Or will it have pay off and if so, how? What's blogging doing for me? 

So what about you... What is blogging doing for you?