How my life would be different…

If I weren’t a blogger…

It’s hard to imagine a life where only bills, credit card offers, and wedding/baby announcements came in the mail.  If I weren’t a blogger, I’d miss out on giveaway winnings, box exchanges, friendly mail for no good reason, free products, and more!

Sure, I have friends… great friends in fact!  I have a wonderful family that loves and cares for me.  What about the times when I royally mess up though?  These IRL people… well they see it all, know it all.  They get the good, bad, and ugly.  Although I try to be as real on my blog as possible, there is a lot that I don’t share, a lot of missed opportunity for bloggers to get to know the real me, the things that make me tick, the things that hurt my feelings.  If I didn’t have this other set of blogger friends to encourage me and lift me up during my rough patches, I’d be a lot more lonely.  There is also something strange about how much easier it is to open up to someone you’ve never actually met.  If I need serious prayer about something or just want to share or vent with someone, there are times that I go to a blog friend over a best friend because it’s easier that way. Please don’t misunderstand… I share a lot with my best friends and they truly know me better than anyone and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but when I feel lost or lonely because of things I’ve done, I turn to blogging and blog friends.  It’s additional friendship insurance!

I probably wouldn’t receive free money or handouts…
I don’t know about you, but people don’t just stop me on the street and say, “Hey, thanks for following me lately… let me give you a couple hundred dollars and some gift cards just for fun!”  Yeah… didn’t think so!  But that’s completely acceptable in blog land and thanks to some fabulous giveaways and wonderful bloggers, I’ve won money and gift cards with no catch other than finding more great bloggers like myself!

I would probably work out less….

A lot of my motivation to workout and run comes from blogging!  I read about others who run (motivating), I want to write my own blog post about training (motivating), I realize that this running thing could potentially get me connected with other bloggers in person (motivating!)

Luckily I get to try new products, which gives me insight into what’s up in the world.  I feel informed, I finally am one of the first people clued in.  That use to never be the case.  I was always the last to know, last to have.

Sure, I know God would have blessed me in other ways, but he chose to bless me in this.  I have made amazing friends, I have started an exchange that you can join that I think is really encouraging and helping people (I at least haven’t had any negative feedback so far), I have been asked to pray for people during extremely trying times and have been honored to do so.  It’s been a blessing and I can’t imagine missing out on this blessing in life.

So there are work conferences (been there, done that, love them!) and your office usually pays for those.  I love conferences, I think they’re fun.  I got my first real taste of one this past year for work.  A lot of people decide to spend their money on concerts or plays (well… that’s me too! Wicked, anyone!?) or other events, but only bloggers think it’s cool to go to a blog conference… other people look at us like we’re crazy!  We look at it as swimming in a sea of new best friends that we can actually stay well connected with in the future (thanks to their blog!).

My life would be different, If it weren’t for blogging and I must say… I’m thankful that it’s not.