Blogging

By Mikala Lindhardt

There are many reasons why someone would start a blog. Many times it could be to advertise for a company or to stay connected or even to keep a journal. Whatever the reasoning and purpose, it is powerful to someone.

Weblogs gave top ten reasons why people would start a blog and some of them I would have never even thought about a creating a blog for that purpose. For example, ‘to connect with people like you’ is reason number five and I would have never thought to create a blog for a connection of some random people, but the more I have thought about it the more I realize how much experience I have had with blogging and my connections.

Blogging actually has a special place in my heart. I have an amazing extended family (yes, I’m biased) and we love to stay in contact with each other. We all get along quite well, so why not? There was a time when all of us lived far apart and there was a family emergency. I had a five-year old cousin, Spencer, who was in desperate need for a heart transplant if he was going to live. He was very sick and stuck in the hospital for nearly six months. There was a blog created by my aunt that gave almost daily updates on his condition and what was the next series of events. The blog ended up being read by more than just our family and ended up inspiring many families and friends around the country. We had people praying for Spencer who didn’t even know him, but found the blog and was addicted. We even had requests to continue the blog after he received his transplant, so our ‘blog followers’ could watch him get stronger and stronger.

Spencer’s story can be found here or here.

It was inspiring and an eye-opener for me to see ‘the power of blogging’ and how real and life changing it is. A simple blog that began as a way to inform family ended up being very special and inspirational to people around the world.

This story is in relation to my previous blog post about the power of social media and how it can be positive or negative. The choice is ours.