What Blogging Means to Me

As some of you saw by Chelle's post over at "It's My Escape", we got to meet in person for lunch this week! Awesome. She was nervous about meeting me, but I'm glad she did so. We had a fun and lively discussion over a couple of salads - although I'm quite sure that I talked too much about me! She's a terrific lady, and it was my pleasure to meet her.

In 3 years of blogging, I had never gotten to meet another blogger or reader in real life until this month. And now I've met two. Both of them are wonderful, fun, and interesting women that I would never have met if not for this blog. How awesome is that.

Here's why that's interesting to me:

I'm just an average guy. I live in an average house, on an average street, in a small town in the middle of farm fields in the midwest. A moderately anti-social loner, who lives on the road. The idea that I could travel into a large metropolitan city and meet interesting women for lunch or dinner, who have read my writing, is staggering to me. That they would be they would be interested in meeting me is staggering to me.

I've been rambling this thought by Chelle lately. What is this amazing thing called blogging? Is it a journal? Is it a community? Is it about venting? About meeting people?

We're a unique group of people, us bloggers. First, we're introspective enough to want to keep a journal. Second, we're extroverted enough to want to do that online, albeit anonymously, in public. Third, we're voyeuristic enough to want to read other people's journals. Amazing. That's quite a set of personality traits.

I've always thought of my blog(s) as strictly journals. My way to express what's already floating around in my head. It is to me, almost entirely, a one-way expressive act. That's just me. I know that some of you probably see it differently, and get different things from blogging. The community aspect is more vital to you.

I know this is counter-intuitive, but I don't blog to get read. I don't do much to drive traffic here. I don't sign up for many of the blog services designed to do that.

I don't blog to make money. I know that some can and do. More power to them! I'm jealous. But I don't give it any thought, because that's not what this blog does for me. I don't spend any time at all thinking about hit rates, or advertising, or products. Maybe I should, because we do create somewhat of a brand with a blog. But, again, that's not what this blog does for me. I have a job for that.

Finally, I don't blog to meet people. Weird, huh. There I go being anti-social again. I do surf blogs, because I enjoy reading them. I do leave comments where I want to comment. I do love participating in HNT, mainly because I've discovered that posting a picture is something that I enjoy, and do surf other's HNT pictures. That activity alone has turned blogging into more of a social activity for me than I ever thought it would.

So. I blog to express myself. To journal my thoughts, observations, opinions, and my semi-nekkid self.

But, having said that, it is great to "know" all of you in the blogosphere - virtually. You draw me out of my shell. And, it has been a very real thrill for me to meet these two amazing women this month in "real life". My life if richer for it.

So, what does blogging mean to you?