A Way With Words

Joy at Cupid’s Charm is hosting a Blog Party about blogging. She invited us to write about why we love blogging. What a great idea. When you’re through here, be sure to head on over to Cupid’s Charm to read about what inspires others to blog.

I’ve always loved to write. My major at the University of Arkansas was English and Journalism, and I taught high school for 15 years. During that time I was the advisor to a number of award winning high school publications. It was a great outlet for my creative juices, and it was so rewarding to help students bring an idea to fruition. I’ve even had several former students go on to successful careers in journalism.

I “retired” from teaching in 1984 when we moved from Little Rock to Texarkana. At that point, I channeled my creative side into a craft shop that I owned with a friend. There we taught decorative painting on everything from wood to fabric. Later when we moved to Birmingham I found another outlet when I began building and remodeling houses.

However, that itch to write remained. So when our youngest son Ben suggested that I start a blog, I needed no further encouragement. In fact, my first blog entry in August, 2008, which you can read HERE, was about how my blog started.

Our youngest son Ben, who prompted me to start my blog, followed in his mom’s footsteps and majored in journalism at the University of Arkansas. As a student, he was editor of The Traveler, the school newspaper.

For a long time, the only readers on my blog were friends and family. I was dying for more people to “discover” me. It was through Laurie, who is a friend of my sister-in-law Susie, that I found a way to direct traffic to my blog. Until I “met” Laurie, I had never heard of a Meme. Now I have a whole new group of friends and 43 followers instead of just three. Some day I hope to meet some of you for real.

So that’s my story. What’s yours?