Today marked one month since starting this blog. It’s been an informative month to say the least. I come from a background of zero blogging, and not a huge social media fan. Hell, I rarely make or take phone calls. I am a social person. But I’ve always been a face-to-face type of person. When announcing to my friends on Facebook that I was starting a blog, I told them it was for me to have a place to chat with friends who I actually talked to and weren’t just names on a page.
I’ve spent what time I could devote to the blog watching videos on starting a blog, learning how to get a domain, install wordpress, use themes and widgets and giving myself a crash-course in CSS. I think in just under a month I was starting to get distracted from the point of starting tedolivas.com in the first place. To have a voice online that was my own.
The few friends who have visited this blog more than once have seen the blog’s appearance change at least a few times in this short time, but have not seen the frustration of trying to figure out how to work with a system you’ve never used in a language you don’t speak. It’s been a headache. But today I got something that kinda put me back on track. An email.
Someone who I have never met wrote me an email telling me, “good job. Keep it up.” It’s funny how, even as an adult, words of encouragement can change your outlook. So after a couple back and forths with the emails I’m more focused on just sticking with the writing. The layout will work itself out over time. The CSS and technical stuff will come with experience. Right now I just need to focus on the voice of the blog. Writing what comes to me, as it does. And not fitting in to a specific niche or space online.
So this is a thank you to Tonya Marie over at Transforming Serenity, another blogger. Her blog is much more interesting than mine, by the way. You should check it out. And never underestimate kindness.