-- three new bloggers I wanted to share

So I'm reading some more. Here are three bloggers I found through Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist blog and their words on why they started blogging and how blogging benefited them. Their words really touched me, all these things are true for myself:

Nisha Chittal
"The difference between me pre-blog and me post-blog is simple: I went from an invisible, hiding lurker to a real person, and an outlier. Seems simple, but that transformation is empowering in a way you’d never expect. I went from letting others define me to defining myself."

Milena Thomas
"It would be a bit of an understatement to say that blogging has changed my life. It's been the most important element in leading an examined life, because of the conversations and reflections other bloggers and commenters provide."

On starting:

"So eventually I began, without a plan or direction, because that’s what she said to do. She said to post, post anything, post daily, post until you have something good to post, post because no one is reading anyways. I trusted that. And I posted. And when my world fell apart, I kept posting, because there were some things I couldn’t say out loud, and there were some feelings that felt more appropriate to send into what I thought was a void because, well, no one was reading.

"And I kept posting. And soon enough I got my first comment. It was from someone who had lost her mother to cancer and reached out and showed me anger and irreverence was an appropriate response to grief. You didn’t have to be a shrinking violet in the face of death. You could hate it, or laugh at it. You could cry until you felt sucked dry and then post your thoughts to purge your mind.

"Blogging about being stuck, angry, and fearful can get you a lot of attention, but that’s not who I am. It is what I’ve been moving through. And blogging has helped me move forward, take action, and change. Blogging doesn’t happen in a vacuum - though it seems to begin in one – and pretty soon it sucks in everything it comes in contact with, because ultimately there is no blog unless there is a conversation."

Kathleen Argonza
"I created my blog, Tough Girl 101, to rekindle whatever spine I had before the marriage drained it away. I remembered being a tough girl once, I figured that I could be again… Blogging was the first step in getting myself back on track."

So what inspires you to blog?