My life turned a corner

This weeks prompt on Matinee Muse is Turning the Corner. When I started blogging my life turned a corner. Let me explain


My friend LUCY tagged me yesterday. She challenged me to write an account of five ways that blogging has altered my life, both positive and negative.

Quite why I started my blog two years ago I really can’t remember. What I do remember however was walking into my local supermarket to be faced with a mountain of desk top computers reduced to half price. I had recently found myself living alone, and I realised that sitting impassively in front of the television night after night was slowly turning me into a vegetable. I bought myself the computer thinking I’d do no more than surf the net and perhaps email my family. I also thought that maybe I would write a bit, particularly tales of my travels.

I don’t even remember where I heard about blogging. No one I knew partook at that time, so there was nobody to steer me in Bloggers direction. It just happened I suppose.

Back to the tag!

1. Until I started blogging I had no idea that I had a bit of a flair for writing. I had written a couple of accounts of my holidays which went down well with my family, but then you are bound to get praise from them aren’t you! It was when I posted one as my initial post on my blog that I found that complete strangers liked it. Suddenly I had turned a corner. From that moment on my life was to change. I was a writer!

2. I’ve always been fortunate to have friends. But friends are not always there when you want them. They have their own lives to lead. But my new friends, my blogging friends are always a click or two away. People on the outside often tell me that bloggers can be nothing more than virtual friends. I tell them that they simply have no idea what it feels like to have this diverse network of buddies around me – different cultures and multiple faiths but with one thing in common, our blogs. Think about it. As kids your friends were your fellow schoolmates. When you married your friends were other couples who had babies around the same time. Other friends will be members of your church or club. What I am trying to say is that ‘normal’ friends are chosen on the basis of similar interests. Okay, so we all blog. But all our blogs are different. All bloggers are different. That is what makes our friendships special.

3. Let’s look for a negative. I sometimes wonder if I’m becoming a bore! I often imagine people in the pub saying to each other ‘Look out, here comes Keith. He’s going to go on about his blogs for the next few hours’ Blogging is after all the biggest thing in most of our lives, apart from family and things of course. It is too easy to make a reference during every conversation to something you wrote or read online about the topic under discussion. Perhaps I’m being oversensitive. I hope so.

4. Another minus point. I have I think, a beautiful apartment. I went to great trouble and expense to make it special. But since I became a blogaholic, I’ve not taken full advantage of my little palace! I get up in the morning and sit in front of my computer. As soon as I get home from work I sit in front of my computer. Then I go to bed, sleep for a few hours, get up again and sit myself in front of my computer!

5. Now I have to be positive again. After all, I do need the pro-blogs to outnumber the anti-blogs. So I won’t mention that it has caused me to put on weight through lack of exercise, and I drink a little more red wine than I should because it helps the creative juices to flow. I’ll keep to myself that I don’t do as much housework as I should, nor that my pile of ironing now touches the ceiling! No, I’ll finish with the biggie! Well I would if could conjure it up!

All I’ll say is that blogging is the best thing that’s happened in my life for many years. It’s provided me with entertainment, education and edification. And that’s not to be sneezed at!

So there you have it. I should now tag some other unsuspecting scribes, but I’m not going to. I’ll just ask for volunteers and see what happens!