- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 6
-
Sparkle (0)
Several years ago, my local TV station had a blogging competition. The idea was to compete to earn a spot blogging at the first NH presidential primary debate in June of '07. I assumed that I'd be one in a sea of participants, but as it turned out, I wasn't. There were 15 slots, if memory serves me correctly, and perhaps 24 bloggers, including myself. And I earned a spot--I got to attend both the Republican and Democrat debates and live-blog. What a thrill! It was fascinating to get the behind the scenes glimpse at this sort of event. I found that the tone and atmosphere were markedly different for each of the two evenings...I also learned that live-blogging is hard.
I'm not a good one for live-blogging. I massage my words too much, I mull over a turn of phrase, I backspace, re-type, cut/paste, drag/drop--in short I edit the crap out of my writing (yet still manage to let errors slip through!) and live-blogging simply harshes on my writing easy. But, you never know unless you try...
So, when President Obama was coming to Portsmouth, N.H. last summer, I put in for tickets. I knew I'd be one of thousands of requests, but I knew for sure that I couldn't go if I didn't even try to get tickets. Imagine my surprise when I got the call that I was selected to attend? Little ol' me in Podunk, NH.
Over the last few years I've tried a few things, and they've worked out pretty well. I'm a substitute teacher in the local schools, I'm on the PTG board at the kids school, and I just recently became Vice President of the Board for a non-profit child care center. Because I gave it a try, I have the opportunity to give back to the preschool that my son attended. An institution reliant on the United Way and donations to operate in an underserved area of NH. It is an amazing place, of which I am incredibly proud to be a part.
So on to my latest "you never know unless you try" experience.
Since I began blogging in 2006 (I think...) on my now defunct Peggy, as she is... blog, I was aware of BlogHer. I was thrilled to find this 'hub' of women blogging. I got my start surfing blogs via BlogHer--I wanted to read what other women were writing. I wanted to better understand the blogging world. I found amazing bloggers, women that share their viewpoints on topics that really matter to me. Bloggers like Suzanne Reisman of C.U.S.S. fame, her feminist approach was like a breath of fresh air to me here in the uber-conservative town where I currently live...and Jenn Satterwhite, the wonderful and authentic woman behind Mommy Needs Coffee. I found PunditMom, and was thrilled to devour Joanne Bamberger's mad writing skilz...and then Catherine Morgan, who hooked me with her political writing, but then I joyfully discovered that there was so much more!
Having found BlogHer...I was inspired! I wrote...and wrote...and built that blog and my audience. I slowly began to realize that what was a hobby was actually a lot more. It was a calling. Not necessarily limited to blogging, it was a call to writing.
And the conferences...I remember seeing all the badges on blogs--"BlogHer '06...I'm going!" "...I'm speaking!" and such--I felt a little left out, though attendance at such an event was certainly not in the cards for me at that time. Since then, '07, '08, '09 came and went. During '08 I hardly blogged at all. I didn't really feel as if I was missing out on the conference that year, but all the others left me with a little, "I wish..." feeling that lingered when I would see any reference to the conference [everywhere].
To be realistic, it had never really been in the old budget. A weekend away for a conference gets pricey: airfare, accommodations, registration fees and incidentals like food, and cabs and who-knows-what. Then there's the leaving of the kids on a weekday, seeing as I was at home with the kiddos during the week while my husband did that corporate gig
