Why I write

The reason for my recent surge of blog posts, is explained in this letter to my teacher at UVU. These blogs have been the result of a service assignment, however, I had this blog long before the assignment. Mostly I changed the direction and focus of my writing.

I did the service for the audience to my blog, or anyone that cares to read it. As I stated when I submitted the service opportunity to you, I have recently found writing my thoughts out very therapeutic. It got me thinking that we all have a lot of knowledge on certain things. We have our own point of view and that point of view is specific to each of us. I thought by sharing my point of view and experiences that have helped me reach higher and grow in my life could help others. So I have written several blogs on topics that have either helped me in the past or are currently helping me.

Did anything surprise me? Absolutely, for one, I realized that this service opportunity helped me more than it probably helped anyone that read my blog. But more importantly, I discovered something interesting. I wouldn’t necessarily say it surprised me, but it was somewhat of an epiphany of sorts. I was recently writing one of my blogs and towards the end got an urge to write differently, more honestly, but was afraid of how I would be judged if someone I knew read it (in fact, I’ve deleted a couple of my blog posts for being TOO open and honest about my personal life to the point that I felt uncomfortable about it), but in my head sometimes I feel like a different person. In fact, the inspiration for my blog name came from Benjamin Franklin. He wrote as Mrs. Silence Dogood so that he could publish his work in the New-England Courant. His brother James Franklin was the founder and publisher of the paper. Benjamin was only 16 years old, so in order to get his work published he would push the written letter under the new pen name of the middle aged Silence Dogood under the door of the printing shop every couple of weeks. I wonder if in his experience writing as Silence Dogood, that perhaps he was able to write more honestly or openly as opposed to if people knew it was him. Does that make sense?

                This experience DID reinforce what we are learning in this class, and I’ll tell you why. This is a technology class. And this service assignment was an opportunity to take advantage of technology oriented service. This is Web 2.0. I can interact with, and contribute to the content on the web. That is an advance in technology that just blows my mind, even now. What we are able to do is amazing. So I think this was very fitting for this class.

                The worst part of this experience was being pressed to write more than I felt inspired to write, which isn’t really that bad of a thing. I like to write naturally, when I feel the prompting or the inspiration. I imagine it is how J.K. Rowling felt after the surge of popularity her books gained. The best part has been the discovery I have made for myself, about myself, and the feeling of creating something that I hope others find value in. Or at least that it might help them in some way.

                I believe service was included in this course and is found valuable by UVU for the very things I have already stated. It adds so much to yourself as well as others. We gain knowledge and it pushes us to gain new understanding we might not otherwise achieve.