Every other weekend throughout 8th grade, I have sat down at my computer and wrote a blog post about a book I had read in the past couple of weeks. Blogging has been a very interesting experience, in which I learned a lot about myself, not only as a reader and writer, but as a person. Being expected to think at a deeper level constantly was helpful to my growth as a person, and this experience lead me to learn more than I was being taught in school, about something beyond a book’s power, the world around me
One thing I learned about myself during this experience is that writing online limits me great ways. More than one time, I have sat down at my computer ready to write a blog post, and then have ended up watching Netflix for hours until it gets too late to publish anything to my blog. It has been my fault that i have been able to get distracted to this level, but if I had been writing on a piece of paper, I would have finished many more of my assignments. My distractions on different online sites has taught me that when there are no limits, I have to be able to limit myself. Limiting myself is an extraordinarily hard thing for me and I’ve never really had to do it, so this experience has taught me that I have to limit myself in order to do what I need to get done.
Each week, blogging made me think about what I was reading. At the beginning of the year while reading any book I began to think what does this symbolize? and what are the themes in this book? because I knew I was going to have to write about it. As the year progressed, I became more thoughtful about what I was reading and I stopped just rushing through books to get to the end. Reading became more about the process, and I am sure that this will expand my enjoyment of reading in the future.
I am very grateful that I was able to blog this year because I have learned so much about myself and my surroundings through this experience. I want to continue learning about myself and others, so I can definitely see myself blogging in the future. I do not see myself continuing with this blog, because it will always remind me too much of homework, (and who does homework for fun?!), but I can see myself starting a new blog about something that I am really passionate about, like feminism! I am super happy that I have been exposed to this crazy world of blogging. Blogging is very special because it is an easy way to express your feeling about something to a large group of people, and even if I never end up starting a feminism blog, I will have already had the chance to express my ideas through a screen.
