The ever trustworthy Wikipedia tells us that the term “blog” is a blend of the words web and log. It’s traditionally an online journal, personal in nature, though now it seems possible to find a blog on just about anything.

A handful of my friends and acquaintances are pretty faithful bloggers. If you follow the friend of a friend of a friend connections, you can read some amazing blogs about travels and families and fighting cancer. As of today, all three of my sisters have blogs. I guess we like to write.

Tonight I’m watching Julie & Julia, which, incidentally, is about a rather successful blog. Without waxing too philosophical, I think that blogs are a way to share our story with the people we aren’t able to live next to. My roommates don’t really need to read my blog, because they usually know what goes on in my life. But my family who live miles away… my friends I haven’t seen in years or catch up with once a month… well, for them, blogging can be a cool way to stay connected with me.

I like the exercise of thinking about my life and processing my feelings. I like sitting down at my computer and feeling a little bit like I’m writing a letter to a friend. I (usually) like being able to look back and relive some of my life’s highs and lows.

Blogs aren’t necessarily two-way streets– it seems like the reader ends up knowing more about the writer than the writer knows about her readers.

And I’d say it’s impossible (and probably not prudent or wise) to have 100% full disclosure on your blog, so the story people read there is an incomplete story. There is an element of that in all relationships, even the ones with consistent (and even daily) interaction. But posting on your blog gives you time to think about the persona you create, the image you give of yourself to your readers. It doesn’t mean the persona isn’t true, or that you’re trying to be misleading… just that there is no way a collection of words and ideas and pictures and videos can fully express a person and the life they live.

So there’s some good and bad in blogging, in my opinion. I’ve kept this blog for 6 years or so, and I’m sometimes a little embarrassed by certain things I’ve posted during that time. Not because they’re inappropriate, but because they’re revealing and honest and they show that my life is messy, most of the time. It’s been so much of a public journal for me, with highs and lows and clarity and confusion all put out there in the same place.

The longer I keep this blog, the more true and strong my voice becomes. Here’s to another 6 years of story-telling!