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This blog post has been stewing around in my brain for quite some time, forming the words long before I started blogging regularly again. It seems really crazy that it has been this long, but I have been blogging for five years. And while I know that's a very short stint compared to many other veteran bloggers, it's still a long time. In those five years, things have changed drastically. Personal stories have been replaced with sponsored posts. Comments are few and far between, and when I comment on another blog, the chances that I'll get a response are slim to none. Thoughtful posts have been ditched for how to posts and blogging advice.

The monetization of blogging has removed the community aspect that once existed. Instead of writing because bloggers love to write and connect with other people, many have become motivated by the dollar. And as a result, the community of readers no longer has a reason to read. I see bloggers big and small giving in to that desire to make money, and what I'm left with is a deluge of uninteresting content clogging my blog reader. Daily, I clear out blog posts that I never even click on because it's just another ad.

In addition to the slew of ads, I've noticed a shift in the way bloggers relate to each other. Just a few years ago, it didn't matter if your blog had a large following or not. Everyone still communicated with each other. As some blogs got larger in popularity, the high school social clique phenomena took hold. Large bloggers could no longer take the time to connect with those running smaller, less popular blogs or businesses. Their circles became limited to only those who were as popular as they were. And their motives for who they related to suddenly seemed to be based on what they could get in return.

Blogs that I had always commented on and found some community in exceeded the size of my own and soon I began to hear radio silence from those individuals. First, the silence came via the blogs themselves-- no more responses to comments, no more interaction on my own blog. Then it trickled into social media. The only voices that remained were the few other bloggers that were at my own level. This seemed to be the antithesis to what the original purpose of blogging was-- to connect and build community with others based on similar experiences that we can all relate to. Instead, just as many things I have experienced in life, it became about popularity and who you knew.

In the past couple of years, my blog has been silent more often than not. And before I decided to start blogging again, I struggled over whether or not it would be worth it for me. I knew the community that had previously existed was still non-existent, broken, and exclusive for the most part. However, I love to write and have always loved to write, and above all, that was the payoff, so I took the plunge back into blogging every weekday.

In the past month and a half, I've felt mixed feelings of optimism and pessimism as a result of regularly blogging and reading blogs again. I'm still getting radio silence from other bloggers, now both big AND small. And most recently, I noticed that a comment that I had left on a blog this past weekend had automatically been turned into an affiliate link by a monetizing app the blogger was using. This outraged me. I had spent the time to read her post and craft a response, and in return I received radio silence and was used for her own monetary gain. This is not blogging. This is not community. It's a perfect example of a one-sided relationship that benefits only one party involved.

On the other hand, in a more positive light, some of the usual suspects that have always been a part of the blogging community are still there. They still comment on my blog, and I still respond. We relate to each others' struggles and triumphs. That is what blogging is about. However, it's hard not to miss that aspect on a much larger scale.

When did we become too good to respond to those who have taken the time to read what is on our mind? When did we become too good to share our spaces and communities with some, but not others? And when did we decide that money and social status trumps community and caring about others? Or maybe it's not that we're too good, but that many just don't care anymore, that they're just simply going through the motions. Perhaps that's the saddest part of all.

But I still write. I write because it's a release, a way for me to process my thoughts and struggles and triumphs. And when I write, I am wholeheartedly me. My voice does not change because of a sponsor or because of a social network or because the blogging world has told me I'm supposed to be writing about blogging advice. My voice is my own. My own experiences. My own thoughts on life. My own hardships. My own victories. My own story.

How do you feel about the changes that have taken place in the blogging world? Are you a part of the blogging community? And how? Are you a reader, blogger, or both? I'd love to hear from you!

 

Last night, my friend Paige, posted this photo on Instagram. I had to have a good laugh because I instantly recognized the location in Chicago, and it was because I had snapped the same exact photo on black and white film many years ago. Her photo prompted me to pull a box of old photos down from the shelf and look through the contents inside.

What I found was pleasantly surprising-- equal parts of nostalgia and inspiration. Not only was I reminded of places I'd traveled, I realized how I used to seek out art in light and texture through things I might overlook today. There was an intentional aspect in what I used to take in from my surroundings. There was a reason to slow down.

Shooting with film makes you seek out the abstract within daily life. It puts a new perspective on what you see with your bare eye. It makes you focus on details you might not notice at first glimpse. And you only have one chance to interpret what you see and capture it within a frame. There's an excitement and anticipation about it because you must wait to see the final product maybe weeks down the road when that roll of film is finally ready to be developed. That inspires and pushes me creatively in a different way than other art forms. And these photos reminded me to push my boundaries again.

Are you a photographer? Have you spent time shooting or developing film?

A little bit ago, I wrote about things I don't get. Many of you suggested making it a series, and to be quite honest, there are a plethora of things I just don't get, so I thought I'd appease you all. And so I present to you, a second installment of things I don't get.

1 // I just really don't get birds. Birds are total assholes. They just sit wherever they want and take a shit whenever they want. If a person were to do that, they'd get arrested. Even my dog has the decency to find the same patch of grass in the park and go to the bathroom there. But birds? Nope. They just let loose wherever they'd like, leaving their business on your patio furniture, your car, and even sometimes your head. Jerks.

2 // I don't get people that constantly live in fear. Recently, I saw someone tweet that no one is safe anywhere at any time in Baltimore. A little bit dramatic, are we? If we get serious about it for a minute, no one is ever safe anywhere. I could have a meteor rip through my roof and kill me any second. Or, I could drive to the store and get hit by a car. No one is ever actually 100% safe. Scary thought if you choose to focus on that. However, I don't, so I tend to feel safe 99.9% of the time.

3 // I really don't get why City Schools are canceled today. There is half a centimeter of snow on my car and everything else is melting because it is simply too warm for anything to stick. Mind you, if I was still a teacher, I'd be celebrating this. However, after nine years of living in Baltimore, I still don't get why the slightest bit of snow makes people think the world is ending. And don't even get me started with rain. Last week, I needed to run an errand and it had been raining all day. People were driving 45 on I-95 where the speed limit is 65. Whaaaaaaaat. It's rain, people! Drive cautiously, but you don't have to slow down by 20mph. Didn't you know that they design roads and tires to be able to make driving in rain safe?

4 // I don't get people who unfollow and then follow me repeatedly on social media. There are a few of you out there that are guilty, but I won't name names. If I offended you enough to unfollow, why not just keep it that way? Why unfollow and then refollow me four or five times? I really don't get it. I usually unfollow someone because I don't care to follow that person anymore. If I'm really so torturous on Twitter or Instagram that you felt you needed to hit that unfollow button, why come back a fourth and fifth time? I just don't get it.

5 // I really don't get Uber. Maybe that makes me sound like an old, crotchety person that isn't hip and with it. However, it just really doesn't make sense. I get if you're planning on drinking and you don't want to drive. However, why pay someone to do something you can do relatively for free? Andrew and I drive everywhere in Baltimore if it's not walking or biking distance. Public transportation in this city sucks. So, we drive. Why would I want to pay someone to do something that is free to do? Aside from the tiny amount of gas it uses, it is free. And we can almost always find free or cheap parking that would cost us less than it would to hire an Uber. In fact, I think Uber is genius because, let's be honest, saying the word "uber" is sort of fantastic. So they got you! How much cooler does it sound to say "I took an Uber" than it does to say "I drove" just by default of getting to say the word "uber." Same thing, but you just dropped 8 bucks to be able to sound cool.

And that's it for my latest installment of things I don't get. What don't you get? Are you with me on these or not?

This weekend started out on a very stressful note. Around 10 in the morning on Saturday, I realized that there was something very wrong with Etsy's payment processing system. Orders were coming in, but none of them were processing properly. After heading to gym for an early morning workout, I had intended to come home, head into the studio, and start filling orders to stay on top of the frenzy of last minute Valentine orders. Instead, I could only stare at my computer screen and watch orders pour in while I could do nothing about it.

I continued about my Saturday routine. We stopped by the post office so I could drop off the few orders I was able to process. Then we were onward to the grocery store to stock up on groceries for the week ahead. Once again, when I got home, it seemed that the Etsy glitch still hadn't worked itself out, and even worse, I had no information as to when it would end.

I tried to go on about my day, but the stress of watching orders pile up made it difficult. Andrew made it his priority to try to get me to relax, but I was finding it hard to do despite his best attempts. We made some popcorn, lounged in our living room, and played Uno on Saturday evening. On Sunday, he served up pancakes and eggs for breakfast. When I finished my last sip of coffee, I checked in with Etsy to find that the issue was still unresolved, and to make matters worse, there was no given timeline for the problem to be resolved. Pages and pages of open, unprocessed orders were piling up. I was beyond stressed out.

As I wallowed in my comfy chair on Sunday evening, chalking the day up as a loss, and hoping that some Super Bowl feasting would sort of make up for it all, Andrew shouted, "You've got to see this! I'm going to have to go up on the deck for this one!" I was expecting to take in some sort of ridiculous, typically Baltimore absurdity and spectacle going down in the alley, but I was in for something completely different than what I had anticipated.

As I walked up the stairs, a red glow lit up my studio. It was as if someone had changed out our light bulbs and installed red bulbs instead. I followed Andrew out the deck door from my studio and up our roof deck steps. To the east, row house roofs and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital emitted the same red glow. And as I turned around to face the west, a gorgeous sunset was lighting up the sky in deep pinks and reds.

We stood in the frigid air watching as the light continued to change as the sun slipped further beneath the horizon. And in that moment, the stress of the entire weekend slipped away. I couldn't change the fact that I wasn't able to fill orders, yet I had been stressing out about it for the last 48 hours. I had missed everything else that was happening because of something that was entirely out of my control. And the sunset was my reminder to stop and enjoy what was happening around me despite whatever may have been bringing me down.

"Red at night, sailor's delight," I said to Andrew. "What?" he asked. "Haven't you ever heard that before? Red at night, sailor's delight. Red in the morning, sailor take warning. It's going to be a beautiful, sunny day tomorrow," I responded.

And it is. It's a beautifully, sunny day. And while I'm still trying to work around the kinks that are thrown my way, I'm making the best of it and remembering to enjoy the good things around me.

It's hard to believe that the first week of February is over. Just like that. Gone. Time flies during this time of year, and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Somewhere in between all of Valentine craziness, I've happened upon a few things for you to enjoy on this Friday.

This song from the new Tedeschi Trucks Band album that came out last Friday puts me in a good mood every time I listen to it.

As mentioned before, the last two weeks have been especially crazy, so when I stumbled up this article about how to treat yo' self without buying or eating anything, I took note and tried to carve out some down time.

My sister posted this article a couples days ago about mistakes artists make to keep them from thriving. I definitely found myself nodding along to a few of these items. They say the first step is admitting that you're doing something. From that point on we can work to improve the things we're doing to hurt ourselves, so this was another reminder of what I can work towards improving.

With the Super Bowl happening this Sunday, I felt that this article about why it's annoying to be a female that gets football. Yes, I love the game. No, I don't need you to explain what's happening. And a hell no to the pink jerseys. I could relate to the writer big time on this one.

While I can't entirely relate to this piece about having a friendship affair, there were bits of it that I could connect to. It's difficult making friends as an adult, and while my husband is definitely my best friend, there's something about having a really close female friend that is much different. I know I've personally told my husband multiple times that I wish I had a female best friend that you can talk to about anything rather than carrying on small talk conversations. And he gets it.

And that's a wrap. I hope you'll enjoy a few of these articles over the weekend. Anyone have any great weekend plans? We're making pulled pork sandwiches and watching the Super Bowl, of course!