Woo hoo!
What a 48 hours it’s been!
Two days ago, I received an email that my little blog had been chosen (out of 1,029, 431 entries published that day) to appear on Freshly Pressed on the WordPress.com home page. I felt like I had just won the lottery.
I called my husband, my sister, my mom. I posted to Facebook and LinkedIn. I walked around with a goofy grin on my face. I was on cloud 9.
And then, another feeling — just a twinge of a feeling, really — began to poke its little head out: fear.
Is my blog ready for this? Am I ready for this?? Am I really getting recognized for an entry with “turd” in the title???
At 11:00 that evening, ready or not, my account started pinging wildly with new messages. And sure enough, my blog was right there in the first spot on Freshly Pressed.
That’s right: I’m the dork who took a picture of the screen with her phone.
I spent nearly all the next day poring over my site, responding to emails, moderating comments and basking in the glow of it all. But throughout the entire experience, here is what struck me the most: every comment left — every single one — was positive and supportive.
Many years ago, when blogging first came on the scene, I recall thinking, why would anyone want to do that? I saw blogs as little more than personal diaries made public and, for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to shout their most intimate thoughts and feelings to the world.
I guess this experience has answered that question pretty definitively.
Some time ago, one of my 10 roommates from college emailed this blog entry to the entire group of us, knowing it would make us laugh. It did (in fact, it still makes me snort with laughter each time I read it), and it also started a round-robin flurry of emails amongst the group. I laughed all the way through that afternoon — just like old times.
Back in college, we all would sit on the front porch of the old, decrepit house we shared and while away hours we should have been spending in the library. I miss those times, and I miss seeing more of those women. But that day, it was like we were all together again. I remember thinking, this is why blogging is awesome.
Blogging connects us to one another. It allows us to share our experiences in an increasingly disconnected society. It allows us to read something that resonates with us, and share a laugh with friends — new and old.
Over the past couple days, I have been positively flabbergasted by the number of people who have visited my blog and shared words of solidarity and friendship. I feel like I’ve just done a backwards faith fall into a sea of arms right there to catch me.
For all its positives, being a stay-at-home mom can be a lonely job. There are no work lunches, no office holiday parties, no Starbucks runs with the team. Granted, there are mom’s groups and play groups and PTAs, but there are always those solitary afternoons when you’ve been bitten and pinched and spit up on, and you wish desperately for an adult conversation over a glass of wine.
So I owe you all a thank you. Thank you for being my confidant, my support system, my outlet. Thank you for reading what I have to say, and making it worth saying. Thank you for traveling this parenting road before me and leaving crumbs of wisdom along the way. Thank you for being there to catch me.
Happy blogging!
The Bump Life 