Inspiration

When I first started blogging, it was mostly to communicate what life was like here in Honduras to a few internet friends. I found myself writing looooong emails over and over again and wanting an easy way to share photos that related to what I was writing about.

Having been without regular, convenient internet access for about four years, I was way behind the blogging craze. I started reading gardening blogs and ran across Gardener in Mexico's blog which inspired me write about living in Honduras.

I started my blog late one night on a whim, encouraged by the "Create a blog in 3 easy steps!" of Blogger.com and thinking I could just delete the silly thing if I ran out of things to say. Here I am on post number 601 a year and a half later.

Once I started blogging, I began to look for other expatriate blogs, especially those from Honduras or other Central American countries. The pickings were kind of slim outside of Mexico, at least those that turned up in my searches. I found that I liked the ones who were "talking to me." The textbook or travel guide styles just didn't do much for me. I wanted to know the person behind the blog and what his or her life was like! Being an extremely imperfect person myself, I liked to know that the other person wasn't perfect either. Who's life is perfect?

I started out in a style of just "talking to my friends." Then I think I went through a period where I thought I should be more "professional." Now I just sort of think of it as if we (my frequent commenters and friends) are sitting around chatting and having coffee. Hey, some days your friends are interesting, some days they are boring, and some days they are bitchy or whiny, right?

There are so many more expat blogs out there now. Some start and then stop shortly after that first "Here's my blog and I'm going to tell you everything about xxxx" post, but many of the newer ones have become among my favorites. Everyone has different styles, but I still like the ones who let me know who the person is.

Two days ago when I was really down in the dumps, a blogger friend (who shall be nameless since he said it to me privately) wrote: "You are an inspiration to many of your blogger friends, myself included. Thanks for sharing the stories of your life. You help us know we aren't alone when things go wrong." Now that was such an honor to read even though I'm not entirely sure that I deserve such high praise. It really helped to cheer me up, too.

I've had countless people write to ask my advice about various aspects of blogging, and many have said that La Gringa (!) inspired them to blog. Wow! Now that is a huge compliment, too! It still surprises me every time. Maybe it's just that people read the Blogicito and think to themselves, "Well, gawd! I could do what she's doing and probably with better grammar," or maybe "My life is a heck of a lot more interesting than hers!" ;-)

I think that if I make it look easy, then I must be doing a good job. Whatever the reason, if La Gringa has inspired you to start a blog, this is your chance to promote it. Leave a comment telling us why you started blogging, what your blog is about, what you get out of it personally, and of course, don't forget to give a link to your blog.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your comments, so don't let me down!