Why did you start blogging?

I've often wondered what circuitous route led all of you whose blogs I read to start a diary that's wide-open to the whole world. Sometimes I tell myself how crazy it is to type words on a screen about my life and my mundane activities, and expect that anybody would be interested.

I started connecting with people on the Internet in an AOL chat room. Not your typical one, though. It was a Christian chat room that you couldn't really enter directly, so it seemed as though not too many "crazies" made their way there. I spent way too much time chatting there, but I made some wonderful friends and had a lot of genuine rolling-on-the-floor-laughing moments, just from typed words scrolling up a screen.

The chat room went sour toward the end, with lots of bitterness and petty fussing. By the time AOL closed it, I had already left it behind.

I found some message boards that filled the void for me, and fully enjoyed them for a while. If I had a thought or a picture or two I felt I wanted to share with the folks on the forums, I'd post it there. But I hesitated to do this too much, because I didn't want to dominate a public forum with the drivel that is my daily life.

I saw one message board that was originally a country living site degenerate into arguments about religion and politics. I got the feeling that nobody wanted to hear my opinions anyhow, and I started my AOL journal. That way, nobody was forced to read what I had to say, and I didn't have to put any boundaries on myself.

I still feel this way: If you don't like what you see on a blog, don't run a smear campaign, as I've seen someone do with one of the most widely-read blogs on the Internet. Just don't go there, if you don't enjoy reading it.

I love the freedom of blogging, and I enjoy the new Internet buddies I've made in this way. I'm learning what life is like in Singapore, and I'm keeping up with folks in nearby Kansas City. Two mothers of young children are going through ordeals with a serious form of breast cancer (HERE and HERE), and I feel their fears as I read their blogs. I share in the adventures of a lady cab driver in Oregon. I read about the trials and tribulations of a cattle farmer I met on one of the above-mentioned message boards. I read the blogs of atheists and Christians and one Muslim, and I like them all. Or else I wouldn't read them.

I have to confess there are a couple of reads I can't add to the blog list on the left, due to the authors' tendencies to start some of their entries with certain four-letter words that would show up on my blog. But I still read them. They've not used any words, so far, that I haven't heard or read before.

So, why did YOU start blogging? Leave your answer in a comment or do an entry in your own space and let me know, so I can read it.