To All the Blogs I Have Ever Loved

Just so you know in advance, this is NOT a farewell post!

I love the blogging community. Of all the social media communities, the blogspot (and wordpress etc.)  community is the nicest. It's friendly and personal and warm and welcoming, that's why I wanted to start my own blog so badly. (Unfortunately, when I started this blog I didn't fully comprehend how bad I was at keeping a writing schedule. I sincerely apologize to people who follow this blog, I ought not to be so remiss.)

This week, however, I am rather melancholy. Another of my favorite blogs has been ended, and so I am awash with sad nostalgia.

One of the main reasons I don't do much blogging is because the blogsphere has been changing. I started blogging just as my favorite blogs were closing down, going on hiatus and joining the other lovely, dusty blogs that haven't been updated in years and whose last posts were "I Promise I'll Blog More From Now On."

I love the community I'm in currently. Some of my favorite blogs are still up and running and I follow them with great relish. But there is a difference, and I can feel it. All the teen bloggers whose blogs I loved so much when I was younger have grown and are getting married. Their blogs are changing.

This is a fact of life. People change. Blogs end. It still makes me sad. The worst thing is when the blogger deletes her blog, because then you are left hanging, and a little piece of yourself seems to be gone. I hate that.

The olde blogs of yesteryear that are now on permanent hiatus that can still be viewed are my solace. I look them up every now and again. I read the old posts and relive old memories. It hurts a little bit, because those blogs were often a big part of my life. I remember the things I was doing on the days certain posts were published, I checked my email constantly waiting for notifications that the blogs I loved the most were updating. I commented under assumed names, and literary-inspired aliases. It hurts, but it is a happy ache. I still have the posts to remind me of what these blogs were in the golden days in my teenage years.

I miss the old blogging world. The new bloggers that keep coming will fill in the gaps left by the old ones, but the demographics are changing. I watch as the blogs shift, little by little. It's not a bad thing, but it still makes me a tiny bit sad. This is a melodramatic comparison, but I feel a bit like one of Tolkien's elves, watching the old age become the new age, and seeing the old things disappear, bit by bit.

This is not a post of complaint. It is simply something that has been weighing on me. I love the new blogs, and the new bloggers. They aren't the same as the old, but they have a special place in my heart. Not the same place, but a special one none-the-less.

To everyone who blogs, whether your blog is ten years old, or only a few months, thank you. Bloggers don't know what impact they have on other people's lives. The blogs I read had a profound impact on me. I went through a very difficult move a few years ago, and one of the things that sustained me through that period when I was acclimating myself to a new environment was a blog that posted several times a week and was always warm and sweet and upbeat. It made a huge difference to have that familiar presence in my life when every other thing was different and strange and new.

I love you guys. Thank you. Thank you for just being there.